Seeing The Vision
Good morning!
This week’s email is brought to you by two current TV obsessions — the newest season of My Brilliant Friend on HBO-Max and Kanye West’s documentary Jeen-Yuhs, which is currently trending on Netflix.
My Brilliant Friend is a beautifully shot and scored drama based on Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same title. It is a tale of two Italian women from 1950s Naples and their friendship over 60 years. The protagonist of the series, Elena “Lenu” Greco, and her best friend Lila come from a working class community in Naples. The norm in their neighborhood was to be educated no further than middle school and begin working after graduation. Both Lenu and Lila are outstanding students, which bonds them despite their very different temperaments. Lenu’s father persuades her mother to let their daughter advance in her studies, while Lila’s parents are not as supportive. Lenu’s father works in a more affluent neighborhood where he sees educated working professionals in their day-to-day lives. He sees how they live and wants the same for his daughter who has demonstrated academic promise. Lenu’s mother doesn’t have this proximity and consequently doesn’t understand why they are sacrificing so much for their child when she could just begin working like the rest of her peers. His vision for what Lenu could experience in life is what guides his parenting and subsequently allows her to become a university-educated professional.
Jeen-Yuhs shares 20 years of unseen footage of Kanye West’s start in the music industry. Shot and directed by one of his Day One friends, Coodie, we see the tenacity and unwavering vision that was needed for Kanye to break into the music industry as a producer from Chicago, and then gain respect as a rapper. Say what you will about him. I am personally not a fan, but I absolutely respect his ability to achieve his dreams through many obstacles.
What these two stories raised for me is the importance of personal vision in our lives. What we think is possible often informs what we give ourselves permission to dream. What we see for ourselves is based on what we have seen work for others. And, the little voice inside of us that I have written about before keeps us going or holds us back.
Follow Kanye's career in this trilogy about his rise to stardom.
As we get older and the realities of adulting continue to settle in, our ability to imagine sometimes dims. In these cases, proximity to the life we’d like to live is very important so that we can help our brains work towards the picture of what we’re seeing. We see the power of proximity in Lenu’s father’s decision making.
I talk about the concept of visioning a lot on Instagram and in my coaching because it really cannot be overstated. What we see for ourselves is what will be.
Our futures are dictated by our present state, but so often we believe they are dictated by our pasts. The past is powerful in that it can teach us a lot, but it can also hold us back if we let it. The stories that we are telling ourselves about our ourselves from the past can be the cause of our limiting beliefs about what is possible for today and tomorrow.
I shared some thoughts here about the importance of vision. Let’s look past my tired eyes and expired hair. I had celebrated one of my best friend’s 40th birthdays the night before and was still finalizing my City College syllabi when I made this. I had this thought on my heart to share so I shared it without makeup and rest because I care more about the words than the looks.
A great example of this is when we make a mistake or things don’t seem to be going smoothly with something we are working on. How does the voice inside of us respond? Does it affirm that we are indeed just bad with people, bad with setting boundaries, bad at being a parent, bad with money, or just not cut out for whatever we’re trying to accomplish? Or, does it guide us to find resources within ourselves and in the world that will help us find the answers and the support we need to accomplish our goal?
Our inner voice is often a vestige of our past experiences and thoughts, and it guides us. It can be our inner coach. But, if it’s not coaching us to get to where we want to be, it’s likely holding us down like a combat boot on our face to the ground.
Vision plays such an important role in our lives because we think in pictures. The brain makes decisions based on what it can see. So, if your vision for yourself isn’t aligned with your dreams and your inner coach voice is a Negative Nancy, it’s going to be really hard to stay motivated to bring your vision to life.
So, let us all be like Kanye when it comes to steadfast visioning for ourselves. These are words I thought I'd never say.
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