Visual acuity is measured in a range of ways, but a commonly understood term in the field is so-called 20/20 Vision. This is an expression of what we consider normal visual acuity – the sharpness or clarity of what you can see.
20/20 means you can clearly see at 20 feet what you should normally be able to see at that distance. As your vision deteriorates, the measure adjusts.
For example 20/100 means you would need to be standing 20 feet from something to see it as clearly as someone with perfect vision can whilst standing 100 feet away.
Taking this idea, and focusing it on work (pun intended), how clearly can you see your career?
Do you need reading glasses to see where you’re headed?
Or is your future path bright, contrasty and crystal clear?
Think about it.
Most of the people we work with start on the 20/100 side of the equation. The path is muddled, the track all blurry and out of focus. As they have progressed down a (usually) winding road, their visual career acuity fades in and out of focus, until it’s plainly hard to make out.
Talking Heads wrote a song about all of this – Once in a Lifetime – all the way back in 1981.
According to AllMusic critic Steve Huey, the lyrics address “the drudgery of living life according to social expectations, and pursuing commonly accepted trophies (a large automobile, beautiful house, beautiful wife)”
Look past some of those trophies, and you might just see things a bit more clearly. Your Careersight will improve even more if you stop looking at other people’s trophies and wishing they were yours…most of us are guilty of this at some point or other.
Then, like Johnny Nash, ten years earlier, you’ll see clearly now.
Even see all the obstacles in your way.
Who knows, it might just lead you to a bright, bright, sunshiny day.
