What happens when you lose vision? Things fall apart, you lose track of where you are, what you’re doing, perhaps even how you’re supposed to get it done. And more importantly, when you’re supposed to get it done. Losing focus, losing touch, losing vision, can cause a leader to lose everything.

This can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. And this is what has happened to me. Sometimes life just gets in the way of the vision and you end up distracted. And if the distraction lasts a while things just get worse.

Things started off so well. I was on task, on target. I knew where I was going, and I knew when I needed to be there.

National Novel Writing Month is in November. I knew that I needed to have my classwork done before then, because once November started, it was all writing, all the time. NaNoWriMo’s goal is 50,000 words in 30 days, and hopefully it holds together as a good story. My personal goal this year was 75,000 words, hand written! So there was no time for anything else.

All was going to plan. I finished the classwork and took the exam on October 30th. One whole day to spare. Or, if you will, one whole day to relax before diving in to a month of writing. I figured, with a whole month, and needing 75,000 words, I’d surely get my blog post done, perhaps even several.

But then…

Writing went well, then it didn’t, then it did, then it didn’t… And as I focused more and more on writing words, I lost focus on what the words were supposed to accomplish. The upshot of it all was, not only did I not reach my 75,000 word goal, (although I was close with nearly 73,000), I completely forgot about writing a blog post.

And then December and January happened. Sorry, but you’re not getting details. Suffice it to say, those two months are not good months for me.

So now, as I pull things back together in February, I realize, I have three days left to get this blog project done and write a report on it. And right now, I’m not feeling terrifically good about it. The really frustrating part about it all is that I had something. I just can’t find it. I found the journal entry that says I wrote a blog post, but I can’t find the actual post in order to post it.

What does all this have to do with vision and leadership? Well, it’s more about what happens when there’s a lack thereof. Everything falls apart. And not necessarily leadership of a group, but leadership of self. But it also has to do with learning from mistakes, striving to improve, and humbling oneself to ask for help.

So, in the last few weeks I have: Gotten back into the Word daily, gone back to the gym, started taking my vitamins again, gotten back onto a healthy (semi) eating plan, and actually told people what I’ve been going through and asked for accountability help. Things are back on the upswing.

I have two projects due in the next few days. I think I can get them both done. In the long run, it’s going to be all good. Learning from mistakes is better than not learning at all. And I’m pretty sure I’ve learned. And if I didn’t, well, extra grace required.