Cathedral thinking refers to envisioning and working towards a long-term goal that may not be achieved in one’s lifetime. It has been applied to various fields, including religion, exploration, and business. A vision statement is a common tool used in business to inspire people to work towards an idealistic future. Cathedral thinking can also be applied to personal goals and financial planning. It encourages individuals to take small actions today towards achieving their big ideas for the future.
The term cathedral thinking comes from people looking back at the way cathedrals were built in the Middle Ages. Those who envisioned exactly what Notre Dame or Chartes Cathedral would look like when completed made plans they would never see completed. The early cathedral workers worked for the common purpose of building something lasting and extraordinarily beautiful, and they were contributing to a vision of the future, but again they would never see that vision come to fruition. Instead, the designers and first builders of these magnificent buildings looked far ahead, knowing they were building something extraordinary, and also knowing that the creation of these buildings would take several generations of work.
The idea of cathedral thinking has been applied to a number of different fields. Some view the most successful religions as founded by those who had an ideal or vision of how that religion would succeed long after they were gone. People who first explored new countries may have looked to the development of those countries in the distant future. Space explorers aren’t just there to look at a specific object, but also to further the view that we might one day travel to and perhaps colonize other planets. Even a family can employ cathedral thinking by considering how actions in the present will affect generations to come, and certainly urban planners, environmentalists, and many other groups are planning not just for today, but for many years from now.
In the business world, embracing cathedral thinking often means building a vision statement. The company’s vision is not a statement of its immediate goals, but rather a long-term goal and an idealistic vision of how that company will operate five, ten, twenty, or even fifty years from now. Such vision statements inspire people to aim for something they can’t quite achieve, at least not immediately, but something they should always work towards.
Cathedral thinking in business is not necessarily as large, massive, or generational as its initial construct in medieval society. A vision statement could only chart the course of a company for a decade. Yet the company’s first actions should be seen as the “laying of stones” or the foundation of this vision.
People may use cathedral thinking when charting the course of their lives, the lives of their children, or their financial well-being when they retire. You can also help children, who are often great at thinking about a cathedral, learn how today’s baby steps bring them closer to their vision of the future. Sure, the future is an unpredictable and dark place. However much you may have the big picture in mind, your life circumstances may not always allow you to move in the final direction you desire. No doubt the cathedral builders also encountered problems along the way, sudden storms, material breakdowns and mishaps of all kinds.
However, when you construct a vision statement, and whatever that statement is for, you or a company must continually ask yourself, “How are today’s actions leading me toward that vision?” If your responses suggest that your actions today aren’t aimed at achieving an ideal, then there’s time to course-correct or time to replant. You can also assess whether your vision is reasonable or needs to be rethought.
Humans are amazing in their ability to dream, to plan ahead, and to look ahead. He thinks of Leonardo Da Vinci he conceptualizes the idea that humans are able to fly a good 400 years before the Wright brothers realized Da Vinci’s dream. Yet we often get bogged down in today’s little details that keep us from reaching the “Big Ideas” and achieving the ideas we desire. We settle for what is and think we can’t change the future. Cathedral thinking collides with today’s small distractions and posits that we can indeed dream big, and with small actions today, move forward towards astonishing goals and achievements.
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