The Difference Between Vision and Fantasy

Don’t Let Fear Trick You Into Believing Your Vision Is a Fantasy

In the past four years of my life, I have experienced things that forced me to concede there is a reality deeper and more expansive than that which we can perceive with our five senses.

What once only existed in the realm of fantasy for me — concepts like soulmates, reincarnation, and telepathy, just to name a few — are now embedded in my worldview. Through experience, they’ve become truths, personal cosmologies.

What remains a fantasy to some, is now a reality to me. In my case, this comes down to perception, a shift in what I could see and understand. My perspective expanded.

What Separates Fantasy and Realistic Vision?

Our society has grown to put our faith in observable phenomena. Belief boils down to theories that can be supported through data or otherwise falsified through that same data.

But faith, of course, is not falsifiable. Faith is belief in what we can’t yet see. Four years ago, when my perception was limited, my faith was too. Now I can see more, my capacity for faith has expanded as well.

True awakening demands expansion across the board — you don’t get to expand only in the ways that feel comfortable to you.

Vision is tricky because it involves a shift in perception grounded in changes that you make to your physical reality, but it also requires an element of faith.

Perception and Faith. These are the two things that separate a fantasy from a potential reality, or what some would call a vision for their future.

Let’s Break Down Fantasy

Something fantastical is impossible due to Universal or physical law as we’ve come to understand it thus far. Things like re-animated corpses, flying elephants, and teleportation are fantasy. They cannot happen in this physical world as we know it to be.

Becoming a famous singer is not a fantasy.

Buying your million-dollar dream house is not a fantasy.

Finding your soulmate is not a fantasy.

These are things that many people would deem impossible, but that doesn't make them so. Perception, remember. These nay-sayers are operating under a belief system built upon a fundamental lie — that of scarcity.

“You can’t become famous because only X amount of people become famous,” the nay-sayer says. “You’re no more talented than the thousands of artists trying to make it in the industry.”

or

“You can’t buy a million-dollar house because only X amount of people ever make that kind of money,” they say. “How can you expect to come out on top?”

or

“Love like that doesn’t exist,” they say. “It’s not out there to be found.”

Get real. Be smart. Lower your expectations.

Well of course, if that’s what you believe, then that will be your reality. We are that powerful. We can manifest a life where we keep ourselves small. If we think we’re capable of less, that’s what we’ll accept as truth.

We buy into the lie. We let other people’s limitations and fears limit us.

And make no mistake, that’s what it is: fear. Fear of failure. Fear that having hope in something beyond what they know, understand, or have the capacity to build themselves, will inevitably lead to pain and disappointment for you.

But let’s say you’ve gotten past the many doubting voices and you’re now toeing the line of more expanded perception, seeing something bigger for yourself. That’s the first part of something turning from fantasy to potential reality, right? Perception.

Now, how do you hold the vision?

Let’s Break Down Vision

Vision involves :

• A clear intention of what you want to build
• Real investment
• Step-by-step action in that direction
• Faith

Say you have a vision of having your own restaurant, but right now you’re living at home, you have no capital, you’re working in carpentry, and you have bad credit. People in your life see you as a failure and you can’t imagine what it would take to get from where you are to the end result.

Well, start imagining. Challenge yourself to get past the initial resistance, that first feeling of “But, how?” or “I can’t”, or “What if?”. Screw “What if?”

Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. You are planting a seed of intention. You don’t have to know every step of how you’ll get the resources right now. What you need is clarity. Get specific. The more specific you are, the more grounded in your reality it will feel. Intention is all about feeling.

Imagine the chairs, the color of the walls, the way the customers will smile and laugh, and how you feel when you walk into the space. If empanadas are what you can imagine serving right now, perfect.

Don’t worry too much about whether you will actually sell empanadas. Right now, this is about projecting as clear an idea of what you want to build as you possibly can. The more real it becomes to you, the more galvanized and motivated you will be to move, and the easier it will be for you to see when opportunities come to help you toward your goal.

Once your vision is as clear as it’s going to get, investment and action come in. If you want it, you have to get up off your butt and go get it. However, don’t get too overwhelmed here. Remember that this is a step-by-step process.

Where people get bogged down is they feel they should be at step ten, when they really only need to be doing step two. You’re a carpenter who wants to be in the restaurant business. It seems to me step one is to get into a culinary program.

You might think, “Well, what if I’m not any good”? or “What if I go to school, and take out even more debt, and then I can’t get the loan for the business?” — woah there, buddy. The loan? That’s step ten. This is step one. Don’t let fears of not being Chef Gordon Ramsay keep you from taking step one.

By the time you’re dealing with step ten, your financial situation could be completely different. You might have a partner. A co-signer. Who knows? Don’t get ahead of yourself. Step one is applications. Apply.

Yes, debt may be a real consideration right now. That’s where investment comes in. It’s an investment in the potential you are trying to create. Vision asks us to invest and take step-by-step action before we can fully see how the end will play out.

You may say, “How do I know the investment will be worth it?”

The answer is, you don’t. You don’t know without a shadow of a doubt. Anything is possible. This is where faith comes in. You have faith, in yourself, in your inspiration, in the potential reality you want to create. You trust that this vision came to you because it has meaning. You trust that what has meaning to you is worth pursuing.

Holding the Vision

The process of holding the vision is those four things in a constant rotation. Intend, invest, move, have faith. Intend, invest, move, have faith, not always in that order.

Along the path to manifesting your vision, there will be hiccups. There will be down days when you’re not sure this vision is possible or real. There will be days you feel you’ve over-invested and why the hell did you think you could do this? There will be breakthrough moments when you feel you’re actively getting that much closer to it.

I think the most important thing to do on these step-by-step paths is to occasionally reflect and look back on where you’ve come from. As you’re moving forward toward something much bigger it becomes even more important to celebrate the seemingly small wins.

Sure you’re not done culinary school, but you’re in it. Or, sure, you’re not a line cook yet, but you quit your old sales job.

Say, you want to save to put a deposit down on a house. Right now, you’re in an apartment with two roommates — not ideal — but you’re also not living with your toxic parents. You have no savings yet but mentally and emotionally you are the healthiest person you know. That matters.

Celebrate each step on the way. There is value in the process, not just the end result. I think you’ll find that turning a fantasy into reality is the most rewarding form of alchemy there is.

See you in your potential future.

❤

If you’d like to talk more about spirituality, feel free to drop a comment! I love chatting down there.

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