Sometimes lessons in vision and focus arrive from the most curious places for me and today I have two very different YouTube channels to share with you that have really underlined some important points about vision for me over the past few weeks.

I’m a massive believer in the fact that your dream of the destination (your vision) is important as it helps you to nudge the journey in the right direction, but the journey itself unfolds the path, and you have to trust in that fact and step out boldly.

This focus on the ultimate destination helps you to make the decisions that are required as you journey, with the path becoming clearer each time you make a decision.

Often when I talk to people, lack of detail is stopping them from making the first step on a new journey but the fact is that it’s nearly impossible to have all the details of what is ahead of you, so again I say, you have to trust the path.

Sometimes, it’s easier to see that in other people than ourselves – so I’ll pop a link below to a couple of YouTube videos that I have noticed this happening in recently. They’re both a really lovely watch if you have time but in very different ways. See what you think…

Childhood dreams and castle visions…

So firstly, I love house renovations, Escape to the Chateau and Christmas so when I stumbled across a daily advent post on Chateau de la Lande YouTube channel featuring Stephanie Jarvis, the owner, and her fellow chateau dwellers I was intrigued. Each day was a little escapism into a jolly, slightly madcap chateau world and Stephanie’s unfailingly optimistic take on the world was quite restorative during all the uncertainty swirling around another Covid Christmas and a couple of really poorly relatives.

Then just recently, I watched Stephanie being interviewed by a friend of hers and the insights yet again showed me that holding your vision and passion for what you do are so important to an entrepreneur.

So in the interview, Stephanie said that she wanted to own a chateau from the age of 3, obviously complete with the dream of being a princess! Her parents worked themselves up from nothing to owning a nursing home that they all lived at and through them she saw that you can love what you do and make people happy, even when you’re working hard.

Conversely, she does confess that she didn’t really find her own work ethic until she was in her 40s, with the establishment of her YouTube channel being the real catalyst. She now combines her passion for the chateau renovation and making people happy and has established a worldwide community of over 173,000 La Landers, who like me enjoy the insights into Chateau life. Many of those people go on to being Patrons of La Lande on her Patreon private feed, contributing over £25K per month into the chateau renovation coffers with their subscriptions.

This wasn’t some big strategic plan, it emerged and developed with the vision of breathing life into the chateau, her lifelong vision of living in a castle underpinning all her decisions, but as a guide, not a stick.

I just loved this quote from the interview,

‘There’s something wonderful that comes from finding your passion, and you can find it at any age’

I truly believe this too, it’s never too late to start…

Cabin dreams and hard labour…

My other watch was very different from the opulent, bright and sometimes crazy antics at La Lande. Again, I stumbled across it (this is a boundary scout trait – keeping an open mind and when I am in think mode, exploring some things that I might not immediately think are for me).

Again on YouTube, this one was a chap called Martijn Doolard and I watched the first episode “First days at my cabin in the Italian Alps” and then intrigued I watched an interview with him to get a bit of background about him.

Martijn was a bicycle nomad who has cycled extensively around the world. His videos are both inspiring and soothing, with stunning cinematography. In his interview he explains that he had a vision of the sort of place he wanted to buy, but that hitting the road in a motor home led to the refinement of his dream to requiring a hilltop home with stunning views, not near other homes, within his budget and somewhere that he could be at one with nature.

The point here being that sometimes we have to journey to refine our vision, which is good – the danger is when the looking around becomes a diversion or you end up looking at so many things that you become confused and do nothing. People sometimes confuse focusing on your vision with having to be single-minded, but part of the journey towards that which we desire sometimes needs slight diversions and even taking a wrong turn occasionally.

As you watch Martijn painstakingly commencing the refurbishment of his stone home, you cannot help but be reminded that things that are worth having often require hard work to get there. He is a master of observing the small moments and his sparse narration only serves to underline that. I almost cheered when he finally managed to drop the hearth stone in place that he arduously manhandled into the house from outside, a poignant reminder that results generally require toil, sometimes beyond that which you think you’re capable of, but ultimately somehow manage to do when inspired by your vision.

So there you go, maybe this is useful business insight or maybe I have just introduced you to some viewing which will while away some empty moments for you…in either case I hope it’s time enjoyably spent.

My top 3 tips just for you…

Lastly, I thought it would be good to finish up with 3 takeaways from this post for you, so here goes…

1. Whatever you set your mind to doing, always ensure that it’s something you will enjoy. The heavy lift of bringing a vision into reality always feels easier if you genuinely love what you do or are working towards doing something you love.
2. Be clear and focused on where you are trying to get to, but never so focused that you stray into being blinkered and close-minded, the journey will help you refine your vision if you allow it to.
3. It’s never too late, you can always start something new – you just need to believe and take that first step.

Value the journey…

I’ll leave you with a quote from this article interviewing Martijn Doolard – I think it’s a great reminder that we should enjoy the journey as we go…

“What was the inspiration for your first trip?

I wanted to see the world and travel by bike because it’s so simple—you’re outside and exposed, which makes it very intense. You also have time to immerse in the landscape and the people you meet. Cycling through a village, you can really make eye contact and hear what people are saying. You miss that in a car. You really get more insight about the big picture, how things work, the differences in countries and their cultures. And nature becomes more beautiful when you travel in such a detailed way.”