Holding the Vision: Leadership in the Void

How comfortable are you, waiting in the unknown? I spent months there last year. I was starting my own business, my calendar was still empty, and I had a page of LinkedIn job listings hovering temptingly open in another tab. I deeply envied anyone who had a 9 to 5 and a prescribed set of tasks in front of them. I was in the void between vision and reality, a common place for entrepreneurs and leaders. We're taught to trust what's tangible, but visionary leadership often requires faith in the unseen and unproven. Leaders must envision a future that doesn't yet exist and map a path to it, connecting aspirations with actionable steps. Whether it's fostering a cohesive team, launching a transformative project, or capturing new market share, visionary leaders must be able to hold that inner vision amidst constant evidence and external feedback that says the opposite. Most of us in the Western world have been taught to prize our external senses and external reward system above all else; thus, cultivating the inner grit, the inner fortitude, to hold this vision against the constant challenges to its actualization is a hugely demanding endeavor, and one we are not usually taught the skill set for. 

After years of launching campaigns in the well-being industry and more recently starting my own business, I've developed some frameworks––born from my spiritual practice––that create inner fortitude, and peace of mind while in the unknown:

• Start with Conviction: Your vision must deeply resonate with you, aligning with enduring personal values. Anything less will crumble against the inevitable uncertainty or resistance from others. Can you tie that to deeply held personal values? I’ve found if the vision does not give me energy to imagine its actualization, I will not be able to sustain championing its creation, against the inevitable challenges, resistance, and micro failures—over a timeline as long as months or years.
• Action Step: Block out 30 minutes in your calendar to identify how your vision connects with your core values, purpose, and mission.

• Set Correct Expectations: By setting realistic expectations, you reduce the emotional weight of setbacks from the beginning. Recognize that long-term visions require resilience, and anticipate encountering more resistance than success initially. On my entrepreneurial journey, I told myself often: “I will fail hundreds of times at this before I succeed.” I also held the phrase “success in inevitable” close at hand, as I believe it is for any person launching an endeavor that is deeply aligned with their values and inner being, and who is willing to fail repeatedly, but keep iterating and getting back up again. 
• Action Step: Block out 30 minutes for developing reality-based expectations for your endeavor. Research typical timelines for similar initiatives.

• Feel the Pain: When facing "micro" failures, allow yourself to experience the associated emotions fully. Instead of trying to keep pushing though, I have since learned to pause, perhaps take a day, and feel the pain of my failure. At Groundwork, we do a drop in meditation (free on Spotify and Apple Music) that walks you through feeling things like the despair of failure—that often feel too big to feel. This kind of practice will help you process feelings like despair, building resilience and signaling to your nervous system that these lows are not insurmountable. Without giving space to despair (or any other feeling) they become stuck in our system. Feelings want to be visitors, not permanent guests. Plus there is a bonus: on the other side of dropping into my pain, the pain that once felt too big to feel, I get this sense of invincibility. That there is nothing in me that I am scared of; I do not turn away from myself. There is such power in that, and it often releases a new, potent energy to return to my vision (even if it takes a few days or a few drop-ins; don’t judge it, just feel it). 
• Action Step: Practice the Drop In meditation now to familiarize yourself for future need.

• Reframe Your Reward System: Redefine success by focusing on actions within your control. During my entrepreneurial journey, I realized I needed to shift to rewarding myself for just doing the work that was in my control, like going out and "collecting no's," instead of believing I had to book a client to be successful. I started dedicating 15 hours a week to pitching, selling, writing, and if I hit my 15 hours, then I patted myself on the back and called it a success. We must be the ones who define what success looks like, and we will be far more happy if we choose metrics that are in our control to meet.
• Action Step: Allocate 30 minutes to establish a consistent reward system that is based on internal success for your vision.

• Make It About Your Growth: A key part of bringing anything unseen into the world is releasing your attachment to some of the specifics, like the exact timeline or how others will interact with your vision. Perhaps it will not even be actualized at all—this is also a plausible reality. There are so many things we do not have control over in this world, but we do have control over how we show up to deal with the challenges and resistance along the way. Thus, I’ve found it hugely energizing in a long term endeavor to think about doing the work of championing a vision or big project as something that is growing me as a person and strengthening a muscle, regardless of the outcome. Even if this vision is not the one you actualize, viewing it as a training ground for future endeavors, or anything in life that gives you resistance and tests your patience, will make it worth your time and will give you victories along the way that are unrelated to whatever outcome actually comes about. 
• Action Step: Start a journal or digital note to document and reflect on your journey.

Leadership is often portrayed as a series of successes, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. We are so calibrated to reach for those kinds of rewards and external affirmation, but it is a dopamine treadmill that rules us if we stay unaware of it. Doing the work of self-examination and reconstructing our internal reward frameworks can benefit us all so hugely in reaching the goals we want to reach, while retaining our peace of mind. I have found there is incredible power in learning to stay steady in the unknown, in the void between vision and reality. That kind of steadiness and self-mastery translates across multiple environments, and having the right frameworks to keep ourselves there hugely reduces friction and the weight of emotional setbacks on the journey. This next generation of leaders who are learning to move from their internal landscape, rather than the demands of the external, not only go farther in business, but on their own terms––in a way that is sustainable, joyful, and centered.