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The Importance of Having Vision
Interview with Terri Savelle Foy and Lindsay Roberts
Lindsay: I’m holding in my hand the book, Dream it. Pin it. Live it. I’m so excited because Terri Savelle Foy is here.
Terri Savelle Foy: Yay! Oh, it’s an honor. And you’re talking about my favorite subject: dreams. I love talking about dreams. One of the reasons it’s so important to have vision, is obviously Proverbs 29:18 which says, “Where there is no vision, there’s perishing.” But with vision, you come alive, you get focused, you get self-discipline. So, I like to say this…Let’s just imagine that it’s pouring down rain outside, and you jump in your car, you turn on the car, it works fine, the lights work, the heater works, the radio, everything seems to work except for one thing…the windshield wiper. As long as your vision is impaired, you are not going anywhere. And it’s the same with life. You will stay where you are. So I love to teach people how to start dreaming again and then go after those dreams.
Melissa: It’s never too late to start working on your dreams.
Lindsay: You wrote, scripturally speaking, that God said, “All that you can see is yours.” And, I wrote on here, “Where your feet pass, you take the territory” –which is scriptural.
Melissa: That’s good Lindsay. It’s a mindset shift.
Lindsay: It is! It’s hard to to see outside of our circumstances and hit the reset button. So Terri, when you don’t believe the Word of God, or you believe the Word of God, but you just don’t think it’s for your life, how can you make the mental shift to really walk out your dreams?
Terri Savelle Foy: Well, I always tell people to start with a blank page. Start with a blank canvas. Years ago, when I was working with my dad, we were redecorating the offices. I was over in France speaking at a conference, and the girl who was decorating texted me and she said, “Terri, what do you want on this giant wall that your desk faces?”
I texted her back, “A vision board.” She texted me back, “Huh?” I said, “I want a big vision board, because I want to put pictures of where I see the ministry going.”
She found a cork board in a closet that nobody was using. She found a frame and she framed the cork board and hung it on the wall. Well, when I got back from France, I could hardly wait to see the offices, and I’d been gone so long I had to get caught up on my work. So I was busy.
I remember sitting at my desk and I would look up at the empty corkboard. I cannot tell you how bad it bothered me to see nothing every time I would look up from my desk. And here’s my point…If you see nothing, you can expect nothing.
Lindsay: That’s right.
Melissa: Powerful image.
Terri Savelle Foy: If you see nothing in your future, then every year is just a repeat of the year before.
That’s how I used to live. Well, it didn’t take me long, I started putting pictures and images of where I saw my life going with just different things that I put on the board. This is how I like to help people get started, because for years, I didn’t know where to start. And I didn’t have dreams for my life. So, here’s the best way I like to tell people. Let’s imagine that it’s December 31st of this year.
Lindsay: Okay.
Terri Savelle Foy: You’re projecting forward. It’s New Year’s Eve. You have your party hat on, you’re celebrating with your friends. Just imagine turning to your friend and saying, “This has been the most amazing year of my life.” Now, what would need to happen for you to say that? Because whatever it is, that’s what you’re going to write down. That’s what you’re going to put on the vision board.
Lindsay: Wow!
Terri Savelle Foy: So what does that mean? “I paid off $12,000 of credit card debt.” “I reached my ideal body weight.” Or whatever that looks like. “I’m driving my dream car.” “I sold five houses.” “I went on my dream trip.” “I conceived a baby.” “I’m pregnant.” What needs to happen for you to say, “This has been the best year of my life?” God is the one who declares the end from the beginning, right?
Lindsay: He starts with the finished product.
Terri Savelle Foy: Yes. So, another example is, I had a friend of mine who had the opportunity to minister to this famous actor in Hollywood, and he said when he walked in his house, he saw this big glass wall with 150 index cards all over the wall. And he asked him, “What is all that?” And the actor said, “Well, that’s my next movie I’m working on.”
“Every good movie has ups and downs, and good characters, and bad characters, and conflict, and victory. I just move my scenes around until I get it the way I like it.”
Lindsay: Interesting.
Terri Savelle Foy: Well, my friend was looking at this and he said, “This is so confusing. How do you even know where to start?”
And you know what the actor said? “That’s the easy part. You always start with the final scene. You decide how you want the movie to end, and then you work towards it.”
Melissa: That’s so profound.
Terri Savelle Foy: That’s what you’re doing with your vision board. When you imagine it’s the end of this year, what do you want to see happen? You take the time to write it down. Then you start moving towards it. Does that make sense?
Lindsay: Yes, it makes perfect sense. In your book, I remember you saying, “Declare God’s promises over your life.”
Melissa: Yes! It also says, “Declare your unique individual desires.”
Terri Savelle Foy: Yes! It’s important to declare your dreams with action steps!