Greetings fellow academics

Is it just me or does anyone else agree that the older you get the busier life seems to become, even when you set out to purposely make things easier!

I thought it might be fun to look at the similarities and differences of vision, focus and enthusiasm and how they relate to everyday life. To me although these forces are not similar they are totally interlocked with each other and as such it is difficult to have one without the other. In this blog I thought I would give a couple of examples from my life and see if it relates to anyone else.

As an avionic engineer (avionics is basically all electrical and electronic systems found onboard aircraft), during my basic training (which I have just calculated and discovered was over 30 years ago!) we studied electronic theory. One of the topics was learning about the different types of waves and it has had a profound effect on my thinking ever since. If we look at the sine wave with its peaks and troughs you can apply it to almost all circumstances and in this case vision, focus and enthusiasm.

Success

Success is achieved when vision, focus and enthusiasm are all synchronized. If it were a graph it would be a steady straight line high on the axis. Then there is a knock at the door of the house of vision and it’s the ‘Grim Reaper’ otherwise known as compromise. This is the point where things tend to fall apart a little bit and our straight line on the graph starts to look like a sine wave, no longer straight but rather dipping down. When we don’t achieve our vision or goals as we expected, compromise starts to eat away at focus and enthusiasm which if not checked can ultimately destroy vision.

Fear not!! You are not alone as I suspect every successful graduate has gone through this feeling. It is very common to start out on a course like this where vision, focus and enthusiasm are charging round the track like a formula 1 race! This is where focus comes into play. If we keep our minds focused on the end result then success is sure to follow. We all have our own particular reasons for starting these courses and I personally have found it helpful to write that reason down in big letters on my note book as a prologue. Whenever our daily trials and tribulations take hold they affect enthusiasm. Each time that happens it has an adverse effect on focus, soothe mantra in the ‘Houston Study Guide’ is “a quick read of the prologue each day keeps the grim reaper away”!

House in France

As regular readers of my blog will know Danielle and live and work in Kuwait. We have bought a house in France for our retirement which needs a wee bit of TLC. This is where vision, focus and enthusiasm rear its head again. When we bought the property we were firing on all cylinders arranging estimates for some work to be done, drawing up plans for building work etc. We are back in Kuwait and in our daily routine which, try as we might to make it quieter, seems to get more hectic every year! Our vision of what the house will look like when finished has had many compromises due to one reason or another and as such we found our enthusiasm wane just a little. When you couple that with distractions our focus shifted to other things. We realized what was happening so the computer images of what the house will look like when finished are now hung all over our study. Our focus is restored, enthusiasm is back on high and the grim reaper beat a hasty retreat out the back door!

Conclusion

Vision can take many forms wither it’s imaginary, tactile and importantly seen. If you feel your vision, focus or enthusiasm is taking a bit of a knock, give yourself some visual treats of what lays beyond the finish post. Write down a sentence that gives you motivation and display it somewhere you can see it every day. Display a picture that reminds you each time you look at it why learning is important to you. The best part I think though is sharing your progress with other students who remarkably all have the same challenges as you do, isn’t it great not to be alone!

Happy holiday season to everyone and as a wee taste of vision just think...

Next year we graduate!!.

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