Most all of us claim to love our country and often brag how grateful we should be to be . Unfortunately, "America the Beautiful" has been led astray by slick politicians, narrow-minded self-interest groups, and self righteous hypocrites.

If you've followed presidential politics over the years you should be very familiar with the promises made by every candidate having to do with their "vision for America". They invariably go on to present an array of changes they hope to make and programs to implement to "restore America" to its glory days or some other such rhetoric.

You might have noticed that none of them ever elaborate of that "vision", intentionally choosing to keep it vague so that they can never be challenged for their lack of achievement? The problem is that nothing will ever change unless we get specific and articulate, in vivid detail, what we wish for our country and what it should look like as a result of our efforts.

It is much like trying to put together a 500-1000 piece jigsaw puzzle without a picture of it when fully assembled? Yes, it can be done. By systematically separating the straight edged pieces and all others by colors and other like features, you can eventually complete the task. Eventually…….

Needless to say, it can be a very grueling and often tedious process until you finally finish. In addition, any passion for the process is minimal as your progress is difficult to measure. In other words, it's just not as fun as it could be if you were able to compare your work to a picture of it all completed. So as a result of you having to blindly piece together the puzzle any feelings of accomplishment must also wait until completion making the journey unfulfilling.

Have you ever put together a 500-1000 piece jigsaw puzzle without a picture of it when fully assembled? Yes, it can be done. By systematically separating the straight edged pieces and all others by colors and other like features, you can eventually complete the task.

Needless to say, it can be a very grueling and often tedious process until you finally finish. In addition, any feelings of enjoyment are minimal as your progress is difficult to measure. In other words, it's just not as fun as it could be if you were able to compare your work to a picture of it all completed. So as a result of you having to blindly piece together the puzzle any feelings of accomplishment must also wait until completion making the journey unfulfilling.

You may or may not be wondering what this all has to do with creating our "vision for America".

Its' significance lies with the powerful principle or strategy of "beginning with the end in mind". Simply defined, the clearer the vision of how we want our country to look like in our eyes and the eyes of the world, the easier will be to devise and implement action plans based on specific tactics and strategies.
Additionally, the ability to "work backwards" from the end result to what needs to be accomplished today is significantly enhanced in direct proportion to the clarity of that vision.

So the question arises. Why then would you listen, vote for and follow and political candidate if he or she does not have a detailed plan to realize their vision from the very beginning

You probably wouldn't…would you?