Where Am I Going? #31

You wake up in the morning, get ready to go to work. If I meet you along the way and I ask you where you’re going, you’ll be able to answer me, because you have your destination in mind, which is the address of your place of work. I will find it strange if you don’t know where you are going, since you have prepared yourself well, and you are even already on the road, walking.

Similarly, if I ask you “where are you from?”, you will tell me you are from home, because that is what you have in mind. When you arrive at your place of work, you know that you have arrived at your destination, because when you leave home, you already know where you are going.

We all have daily routines that define where we go, whether it’s for work, for school, or for any other reason. But what is sometimes tragic is that, sometimes after spending so many years going to school or going to work, we realize that our life is coming to a point where we don’t like it.

Either you realize you studied the wrong thing, and all that money and time has been wasted — or you’ve really struggled to climb all the ladders in your professional life, and once you get to the top, you realize it has cost you a lot, and even things that you really counted on such as family, friends, and even hobbies, and that in the end you don’t really appreciate that promotion that much.

The reason this happens is that very often we are so focused on the present moment that we don’t take the time to step back and reassure ourselves that this activity that consumes so much of our attention, really contributes to the result we want for our lives. A painter can be consumed by a part of his canvas, but he always takes a step back from time to time to reassure himself that the part contributes exactly to the result he wants for the entire work.

In this story and the next ones, we want to ask ourselves the question of where we are going with our life. We want to be reassured that our various daily activities lead us exactly where we want to go with our life. But as we said a little while ago, we can’t know when we have reached our destination, if at the beginning we don’t even know where we are going.

I’ve always been amazed by people who go out and say they’re just going for a walk in the neighborhood. They don’t know exactly where they are going, but they will find a destination along the way.

You can’t know when you’ve reached your destination, if at the beginning you don’t even know where you’re going

Unfortunately, many people also lead their lives this way. Since they have been on earth, they don’t know exactly where their lives are going and therefore they live from day to day, hoping one day to find meaning in their lives. The fact that you are reading this blog tells me you are not one of those people who hope to find meaning in their lives, but who are working to find meaning in their lives, and this blog has already given you some clues, I am sure. In this story, I will give you more.

For you to say that you know where you are going is proof that you have a mental picture of where you are going. Let’s say you are going to work. You know what your company building looks like, and that’s why, as soon as your vehicle arrives in front of that building, you stop.

In other words, if your brain has no idea what that building looks like, you would have a hard time knowing whether you arrived. And that mental image we have of where we are going is called vision. It’s because you have a vision of where you’re going, that you say you know where you’re going.

What is vision?

The term vision is used in many contexts, but all these contexts refer to sight. Sometimes we define vision as a dream we have without being asleep. Like images that we are the only ones to see while we are awake. For example, if you’re in the middle of a conversation with friends and suddenly you feel like you’re being taken to another reality where you see things that only you can see, that’s also called having vision.

Sometimes we also refer to vision as our way of seeing things, life, our way of interpreting different situations in life. For example, if you see an opportunity in a situation that your friends call a problem, it’s because you have a different view (or vision) of the situation than your friends do.

But, the vision we’re going to talk about here is rather the one that defines the destination of your life. When you leave home every morning, you know where you’re going. But since you came to earth, do you know where you are going? In previous stories, we answered the question of where I come from, and explained that we come from heaven. Having answered the question of where I came from, let us now answer the question of where I am going.

Difference between vision and sight

Sight allows you to see things as they are, while vision allows you to see things as they could be. As an illustration, let’s take the example of a businesswoman who buys an empty piece of land. Although with her sight she sees an empty lot, her vision shows her the building that will be erected there after 2 years of construction. Let’s take another example, this one related to parental life.

When a child is born, with our sight we see a small being totally dependent and harmless, but with our vision we can already see this big boy who one day will accomplish great things on this earth. Real leaders often do this too: Joseph Guardiola saw great potential in Lionel Messi, and allowed him to become the great footballer we have today — Alex Ferguson saw the potential of Cristiano Ronaldo, and allowed him to become the great player we have today (I had to mention both players, to avoid creating polemics). So your vision determines where you go.

If you know someone who might be helped by reading this story, please feel free to share it with them. You can also follow my account, to not miss my next stories on the subject.

May the Grace of God help us to obey his Law.

Thank you for reading.