Vision and strategy are both important. But there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. Always. If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you.

I have seen this over and over again in my professional and personal life. Once I got clear on what I wanted, the how almost took care of itself. Let me give you an example.

Sometimes, success is simply a matter of making one small adjustment. For example, at 211 degrees, water is hot. But at 212 degrees it boils. This makes all the difference.

Sam Parker and Mac Anderson expanded on this simple metaphor in their short book, 212°: the Extra Degree. They wrote,

A clearly written goal is not enough. A carefully thought out action plan isn’t either. You need more than this if you are going to accomplish really big goals. Let me explain.

Last year, I set a goal to write a new book, called Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. As someone who has spent his career in the book publishing industry, I had witnessed hundreds (if not thousands) of people get turned away by publishers, simply because they didn’t have a platform.

I have been thinking a lot about discipline lately. Everyone knows you can’t succeed without it, yet few people seem to possess it.

My friend, Andy Andrews asks this question:

Can you make yourself do something you don’t want to do in order to get a result you really want?

I have always been fascinated by the power of incremental change over time. Most people underestimate this. They think they have to take massive action to achieve anything significant.

I am not opposed to massive action. I have used it myself to achieve certain results. But it causes most people give up before they ever start. They just don’t think they can make the investment.

Recently, my friend and coach, Dan Meub, challenged me to identify my list of top ten, non-negotiable disciplines. He said, “View this list as the ten disciplines that if practiced faithfully would make the biggest impact on the quality of your life this year.”

So, after a little thought, I came up with this list:

Holy smoke! I thought I had big goals. Then I read a new article on the Wired Web site about a long-distance runner named Dean Karnazes. It’s called “The Perfect Human.” It’s definitely worth reading.

Here are some of the highlights:

• He ran a marathon a day in a different state for 50 consecutive days. He ran in all 50 states.
• He once ran 350 miles in three days—with no sleep.
• He’s run the Badwater Ultramarathon seven times. It starts in Death Valley, 250 feet below sea level and concludes, 135 miles later, halfway up Mt. Whitney, at 8,360 feet. He won the race in 2004 on his fifth attempt.
• He runs 100 to 170 miles a week.
• He couldn’t find time to run 4–6 hours a day, so he began sleeping less. He currently only sleeps four hours a night.
• His resting heart rate is 39 beats per minute!

My favorite quote from him is this one:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!

Amazingly, Dean just turned 44. Maybe I need to revisit my goals and do a little stretching! You can also read more about him on his official Web site.