Vision gets the dreams started. Dreaming employs your God-given

“Vision gets the dreams started. Dreaming employs your God-given imagination to reinforce the vision. Both are part of something I believe is absolutely necessary to building the life of a champion, a winner, a person of high character who is consistently at the top of whatever game he or she is in.” Thus spoke Emmitt Smith, the great athlete whose footsteps carved his name upon the fields of glory. Yet his words speak not only of victory in sport, but of triumph in the greater arena of life. His wisdom reaches beyond the cheering crowds and glimmering trophies — it speaks to the fire that burns in the soul of all who seek to rise above mediocrity.

At the heart of Smith’s teaching lies the sacred link between vision, dream, and character. For vision is the spark — the divine glimpse of what could be. It begins as a whisper in the heart, a picture glimpsed through faith’s window. But a vision alone is like a seed hidden beneath the soil; it must be watered by dreaming, by the fertile power of imagination, if it is to take root and grow strong. To dream is to give breath and color to the vision, to see it not as a far-off hope but as a living thing that already exists in the realm of the spirit.

Emmitt Smith, who once ran across the fields of the National Football League with strength and grace, did not rise there by chance. As a boy, he dreamed of greatness — not as idle fantasy, but as faith in motion. He envisioned himself breaking tackles, crossing goal lines, wearing the crown of a champion. And when his body grew weary, it was that vision that carried him further. When he fell, it was the dream that lifted him up again. In his words, we see that victory begins long before the contest — it begins in the unseen battle of the mind, where faith and imagination forge destiny.

So it has always been, even in the ages of heroes. Consider Alexander the Great, who, before conquering the world, first imagined it. As a youth, he pored over tales of Achilles and dreamed of walking among the gods of valor. His vision was not bound by the limits of his land; it stretched across deserts, rivers, and empires. He saw in his heart what others called impossible, and so he made the impossible real. His armies fought with swords, but he fought with vision, and his victories were born of imagination as much as steel.

Yet vision and dreaming alone are not enough. Emmitt Smith reminds us that the true mark of a champion lies in character — the discipline to endure, the humility to learn, and the integrity to honor both victory and defeat. Vision gives direction, dreaming gives passion, but character gives endurance. Without it, dreams wither at the first sign of trial. The great ones are those who, though beaten and bloodied, keep their eyes fixed on the light of their vision, trusting that pain is but the forge that shapes them into gold.

In the world of the ancients, the philosopher Aristotle spoke of virtue as the habit of greatness — not born of luck, but of repeated, disciplined action. This, too, is the wisdom of Emmitt Smith. A winner is not crowned once, but daily, in the quiet victories of self-mastery. The dream strengthens the vision, but the character sustains both. The one who walks this path becomes, in time, unshakable — a person “consistently at the top of whatever game he or she is in,” because their foundation is built not upon fortune, but upon purpose.

So, dear listener, take this as a teaching for your own life: dare to envision, and then dare to dream it into being. Let your imagination serve not vanity, but destiny. Hold your vision before your eyes when doubt darkens your way. And when you fall — as all champions do — rise again, strengthened by character. Build within yourself the quiet courage to persist, the humility to grow, and the faith to see beyond the present moment.

For as Emmitt Smith declares, the making of a champion is not a single act, but a lifelong dance between vision, dream, and character. When these three move in harmony, even ordinary souls become extraordinary. So, look within — find your vision, feed it with imagination, and fortify it with virtue. Then you, too, shall walk the path of the winners, not for the crown of applause, but for the nobler prize — the mastery of your own destiny.