I’ve realized that visionaries have a strange relationship with time.
We can see the completed thing so clearly that, in our minds, it already exists.
That’s what struck me as I finished looking through journal number five—my first full year of journaling.
Back in 1997, I had drawn out an idea for a series of Coastal Condos guides covering the entire Florida coastline.
I’d already proven the model with Toronto and Beyond. I knew the contextual wrapper could change while the underlying system remained the same.
Toronto and Beyond.
Nashville and Beyond.
St. Louis and Beyond.
Coastal Condos.
I could see the whole thing.
But seeing it and building it are two very different things.
My friend Joe Polish describes it like running a relay race.
Some of us are very good at carrying the baton through the first stage. We generate the idea, see its potential, and get it started.
Then all the batons begin piling up at the first handoff.
I understand now why that happens.
Once you’ve visited the future and seen the completed vision, coming back to execute all the individual steps can feel like living in the past.
You’re mentally standing at the finish line while reality is still waiting at the starting block.
That’s why learning about visionaries and integrators—and the different Working Geniuses of wonder, discernment, invention, galvanizing, enablement, and tenacity—has been so valuable to me.
A great idea doesn’t need one person who can do everything.
It needs the right people to carry the baton through every stage of the race.
Looking back, many of my ideas weren’t missing anything conceptually.
The models were durable. The contexts were sound. I could see exactly what they could become.
What was missing was the complete team required to bring the future into the present.
That may be one of the most valuable lessons from my first year of journaling:
Your unfinished ideas aren’t necessarily bad ideas.
Some of them may simply be waiting for the next runner.