This article is written by Abhyuday Agarwal, COO, LawSikho.

I have found myself unable to create a vision for myself for so many years. I don’t know why, but I just go blank when I think of what I want my life to be like. Personally and professionally.

This really holds me back from reaching my full potential.

Could this inability to create a vision link back to something very simple from my past?

The nearest activity I found to create my vision is – daydreaming. Not dreaming at night, because I have very little control over those dreams. 

However, if I start dreaming of something bright in my life, there is a voice in my head which says, “Dreaming does not get you the results. You have to go out there and take actions to generate the results you want.” 

I don’t know if it’s my teacher’s voice, or my father’s. But it sounds like the voice of some kind of truth. 

It is reprimanding. It is shaming. As though I committed a big crime. 

I have surrendered enough of my life to this voice.  

I failed to see that the message of this voice is only partially correct – daydreaming does not cause results. It does not work when I fantasize about having all the luxuries but expect my life to magically work out, one fine day. It does not work when I don’t take actions in my life. 

Why am I calling this a partial truth? What is the full truth? Does daydreaming have any other utility? 

Daydreaming is one of the most powerful ways to allow your mind to wander and yet get in touch with your most authentic desires. 

The images that first come to you are the strands of vision that really inspire and awaken you. If you think you are unable to visualize anything, you are probably dismissing your most natural visions before even acknowledging them.

Day before yesterday, I had a vision where 10 years had passed from today. I looked around me, and I saw a vast expanse of green. It was a wide grassland. There was a sunny yellowish tinge under a deep blue sky. I was experiencing the light of the sun under the sky and feeling a rush of satisfaction. I could feel accomplishment and abundance. 

I had no idea about the size of my business, or the number of customers impacted, or my earnings. However, I experienced an inner satisfaction. 

It may sound abstract to you, but it was a beckoning vision of my future. It called me. 

For the first time ever, something really called to me. 

Because I allowed myself to listen to my voice, not the voice of someone else inside my head.  

What happened next? 

I sat in peace and planned out how to grow our work at Lawsikho. 

You might think if I grow our work, I will only get busier and cooped up in an office. You might think it is better to put my dream in the trash can for that reason. I used to think like that about my dreams.  

It’s different now. 

If the work is worthwhile for people, there will be hundreds of team members at Lawsikho, lakhs of customers and well-wishers which will enable me to take time off to take a vacation. 

It will create tremendous satisfaction for all.

The next day, I went back to the drawing board to create an innovative structure for our study materials. I created a prototype of a new kind of practice note. It will enable practitioners to learn advanced aspects about new areas of law in the fastest way possible. 

It will really be the next level. I have since started to get materials created using this new method.  

This is what we do, one incremental innovation after another, and implement it in all our courses.  

In that moment, I realized that the vision was of the fulfilment of this purpose. It was about the satisfaction which emerges from this.  

This is what I wanted to create when I had quit a corporate law firm job. I am not talking about the vacation, the grassland or the sky, but the satisfaction arising from creating an organization which contributes to people, gives meaningful careers to its team members and is self-driven.

This visualization was the fulfilment of that vision.  

I know that nobody is going to make my vision materialize for me. I know that I have to make it happen for myself. I know that if I stop working at any step, I will fail. 

Yet, having that image and vision brings me a sense of peace and joy.  

The voice in my head really meant that I am responsible for achieving the results I want, and that I cannot expect my dreams to be fulfilled by an external force. It wasn’t meant to prevent me from dreaming itself. 

For many of us, building a practice around new areas is challenging. For some of us, getting new clients is the challenge. For others, serving clients when we have gone independent is the challenge, in comparison to serving clients of a law firm. 

There are many other challenges. They are all valid challenges. I am not going to discount the fact that they are real challenges. 

However, I am not going to say how to deal with this challenge today. You don’t have to deal with it today. 

Today, you must start (day)dreaming.   

We don’t dare to dream until we can see the steps that will lead to the fulfilment of the dreams. If we don’t see the steps, we trash our vision itself. I have been like that for years. 

What I am saying to you is this – don’t worry about knowing about the steps or the pathway for now. 

The steps and the pathway is to be created after you create your dream. They will emerge on the way. 

If you want further assurance, some of the pathways are available with us. You will be able to use them when you need them. For example, if you want to specialize in a particular area of law, you can take up a Lawsikho course and learn some of the most important tasks a lawyer must perform for a client, and publish some articles online that will begin to get you noticed. Over a thousand people are using them to build the careers they want.  

However, that is not the point. 

You’ve got to decide what your dreams are, and your dreams can only be conjured by you. 

Start with a few moments of daydreaming today. 

Let us know what you visualize. And please, don’t use logic to discard your dreams.  

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