I'm a member of Vistage, a CEO leadership network, and in September last year at one of our Vistage retreats, Louis Parsons ran a 'VisionScaping' workshop.
I was the grumpy one in the group who got quite frustrated with it all, feeling my paintings were dreadful.
Winding back a few years.... at the age of 8 my dad bought me a motorised go-kart and ever since then I have desperately wanted to race cars and from the age of about 30 I've been able to afford to but I've never done it. I am now 51.
So when Louis asked me to paint something, it was me in a race car at Brands Hatch. To be honest on the day I thought it was all a bit of a waste of time and couldn't see why this was of benefit to me.
Anyway I put the painting in the back pocket of my laptop bag with the intention of making my wife and kids laugh and went home. I got home, the conversation didn't go in that direction and the moment passed.
The painting stayed in the back of my laptop bag and when I thought about throwing it away it made me think about something Louis said. I can't remember his exact words but it was something about the paintings making it quite likely that you would do the thing you had been holding back from doing.
This year I entered 5 competitive races in the MSV Trackday Trophy racing a Mazda MX5 - a truly fantastic car to race. I got pole position in my class for 3 of those races and won my first race.
I've had wheel to wheel battles where drivers have pushed me to the edge of the track but I still got by. I have had spins in the wet as the heavens opened. I have had on track shunts followed by angry discussions in parc ferme. I have had a major crash and been taken to the medical centre. I know that sounds bad but it isn't, to me this is all a dream come true, I love it all.
I have even managed to crash into the back of my team mate; just like F1. Oh yes, my partner on the Vistage retreat day at in Louis' session happened to paint the exact same thing as me (now how weird is that) and so I got him to come along for the journey and he has loved it just as much.
But to top it all, I raced the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch, the very thing I painted that day and the very thing I have always wanted to do since that little 8 year old woke up on Christmas morning to find a go kart sitting outside the house.
So I owe Louis a massive thank you!
The power of imagination and creativity is nearly impossible to measure but if we can take a moment to allow ourselves to be creative without any restrictions, dream, visualise, then I think we will be surprise what manifests from that moment.
How close are you to your vision, has it happened yet, what’s in the way?
