Have you ever taken a bird's eye view of your life? Have you ever been able to look at yourself and your life and think about the future clearly without insecurity or uncertainty? If your answer to these questions is an emphatic "no," take heart. Many people have to learn how to get a healthy, confident perspective on themselves and their lives.

This ability to clearly see yourself now and where you want to go in the future is called vision, and it's a very important business skill. Vision allows employees to see their next project clearly and confidently, managers of companies to know the qualities that would most help the organization reach its goals, and doctors to work on a cure for AIDS despite the difficulties.

In the American Indian tradition, people went on six-day vision quests to determine what they should do in the future and where they should direct their energies. You can take a similar journey, just in your mind. Here's how: