You don’t know your vision?

If you don’t take the time to identify and define your vision for your life, you’re risking never knowing where you want to be or when you arrive.

About a millennium ago, when I was in high school, I met a guy named John Hicks. John and I discovered we each had a mutual love of rock ‘n’ roll, so we formed a band and got to experience the heady rush of being (very) minor rock stars in our small community. It felt so good that when we moved away to college, we rented a house, found some more musicians, and started another band. John was a great lyricist, and I played some guitar, so we wrote many songs together that became international hits nobody’s ever heard of.

Like just about everybody else back in those days, John and I went our separate ways after college and completely lost touch with each other. Then Facebook came along and now we’re all back in touch with all the people we hoped we’d never hear from again.

But it wasn’t that way with John. We reconnected on Facebook and messaged back and forth, catching up on each other’s lives. About a month later, I noticed John’s name pop up in my feed. Someone had posted a video clip from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? tagging John with the comment, “This still makes me smile.” John replied, “Thanks for remembering.” And that was it.

In case you’re one of the four or five people on the planet who haven’t seen it, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a movie set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. It stars George Clooney, who plays Everett, an escaped convict. Early in the movie, Everett and some of his friends record a song as the Soggy Bottom Boys, and that song becomes a big local radio hit in their area.

In a climactic scene toward the end of the movie, Everett and his band are on stage at a campaign rally singing their big hit. When the crowd recognizes the song, they go wild and start clapping along with the music. After a few bars, some redneck in the back of the room shouts out, “Hot [dang]! It’s the Soggy Bottom Boys!” The band goes on to finish the song which ends with thunderous applause.

It’s a famous scene that I had watched a couple dozen times over the years, but I had no idea what on earth it had to do with my old friend. I remembered that John had done some acting back in high school, so I wondered if maybe he had been an extra in that scene.

Such a possibility needed investigating, so I pulled up the video and started watching the scene again. I slowed it down pressing play and pause repeatedly, studying each face in the crowd until I had gone through the whole thing. But I found nothing. So, I tried it again and still found nothing. The third time I watched it was when I finally saw it.

That redneck in the back of the room is none other than my old  buddy/roommate/bandmate, John Hicks.

But I had never seen him in that movie until that point. Why was it that I missed him? Did I make the point that John and I were pretty good friends? Did I mention I was very familiar with the movie? Then why didn’t I notice him?

The reason I didn’t see him was because I wasn’t looking for him.

If you don’t know what your vision is—where you want to go, what you want your life to look like—you’re taking a horrible risk. If you don’t know your destination, how will you know where to steer? By what means will you know how to make the hundreds of decisions needed along the way? And how will you recognize it when you’re close? Are you going to leave it to luck?

Investing the time to clearly define your “why” and “where” will save you truckloads of heartache, frustration, and grief. Without exception, every successful business that I know, every healthy person, every thriving relationship has begun with a strong vision.

Do you know your vision for your life—your marriage, your career, your finances, your business? If not, maybe it’s time to start writing your script.

© 2026 Charles Marshall. Charles Marshall is a nationally known humorous motivational speaker and author. Visit his website at www.CharlesMarshall.net or contact him via email at charles@charlesmarshall.net.