The famous sculptor, Michelangelo, said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

It's a metaphor for how he saw art – as potential that already existed within the stone and his job was to chisel away the excess until it was revealed. That idea translates far beyond art and scultping to your every day life and mine.

Michelangelo said, "he didn't create the angel — he just chipped away everything that wasn't the angel." That's what vision does. It shows you who you are becoming, and then it forces everything else to fall away. If you have a vision, you will willingly restrain your options to capture it.

VISION is what allows you to see potential and keep chipping away despite every hindrance and distraction. You know you're not just chiseling rock; you're freeing an angel. And vision gives pain a purpose.

In our business, vision will either make or break you...

• Vision will cause you to block out your sales meetings; nothing will keep you from them.
• Vision will find you making calls every day; it is non-negotiable.
• Vision will lead you to work to the very end of 4th quarter.

We play from the snap to the whistle. And this year isn't over yet. This is the quiet part of success. The unglamorous part. The part nobody claps for. The part that literally builds you into the kind of professional who can handle the success you want but maybe aren't completely confident you can achieve or deserve.

My advice?

Intentionally spend time with game-changers, not energy-drainers.

FREE THE ANGEL.

Chip away everything from your calendar that doesn't look like your vision.

FREE THE ANGEL.

Hang with producers; don't let a lack of confidence keep you from it.

FREE THE ANGEL.

Grow with people who are actively rewriting their future instead of commenting on everyone else's.

FREE THE ANGEL.

Show up. Shut out the noise. Pick up your chisel. Do the work.

Your vision is waiting to be carved out of today's grind. Michelangelo was called Il Divino (the Divine One) because he could see the angel before anyone else and just kept chipping. Your "chisel" is a phone, a CRM, and a spine.

Keep chipping. You might not feel divine, but to the people whose move you make possible… you're pretty close.