Thomas Edison once said that “vision without execution is hallucination.” He should have known. Edison was famous for his relentless pursuit of what worked — in light bulbs, moving pictures, and more.
When it came to the light bulb, it’s probably fair to say he failed more times than he succeeded. Not all execution is an immediate success; in fact, sometimes our actions result in setbacks or shed further light on what doesn’t work. But execution requires action.
How many decent athletes play pick-up basketball? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? More than a few of them probably fancied themselves a good player — maybe even had the raw abilities to be a good player. They had visions of greatness but lacked one thing: execution. Those who rise from the ranks of playground ball to their high school team, on to college, or possibly the pro’s have learned that success (accomplishing the vision) takes work.
How many good ideas never get turned into a business?
How many novels remain in the head of a would-be writer?
How many idyllic family vacations never get planned?
We cannot live without vision. That is true in our personal lives as well as our professional lives. Churches, teams, organizations, and businesses all need vision to keep the fires burning. But without execution the vision becomes a hallucination.
Pray for God to give you a burning vision of what might be … and then get busy working towards making it a reality!