The Space Between Vision and Validation

Italy

I had fantasized about Italy for years.

The cobblestone streets. The golden light filtering through ancient archways. The pasta that would surely change my life. I added extra days to my itinerary, front-loaded my trip with Rome and Florence, spent hours researching the perfect restaurants, the hidden gems, the must-see views.

And then I arrived, and none of it lived up to what I had built in my mind.

The food was average. The heat was oppressive. The magic I'd been promised felt manufactured, packaged for tourists who'd also been sold the same dream. I left Italy underwhelmed and haven't been back since.

Paris was the same story. I had visions of romantic cafés and perfect croissants, but instead, my luggage was lost at the airport. The outfits I'd carefully planned for the trip were gone, and with them, the entire mood I'd been trying to create. What should have been magical felt like a frustrating logistical nightmare.

But then there was Barcelona.

I had no expectations for Barcelona. It was just another stop on the itinerary, a city I knew almost nothing about. And it completely blew me away. The energy, the food, the architecture, the way the city felt alive in a way I hadn't anticipated. It became my favorite city in Europe—not because I'd dreamed it up beforehand, but because I showed up open to whatever it wanted to be.

Since then, I've learned to travel differently. Croatia surprised me with its food. Albania's Riviera stopped me in my tracks. Japan became my favorite country in the world. Every place I visit with low expectations becomes the place that changes me.

The pattern is clear: when I let go of control, when I stop dictating how something should be, I'm free to experience what it is. But here's the thing about lessons—you learn them in one area of life, and then you have to learn them all over again somewhere else.

Have your expectations ever failed you?

Have you built something up in your mind—a project, a goal, a milestone—only to feel crushing disappointment when the reality didn't match the vision? Have you ever wondered if maybe you were wrong, if maybe the dream wasn't meant for you after all?

I'm in month one of launching Eventrixe, and I'm learning this lesson all over again. I spent 24 hours editing a video I was certain would go viral. I poured myself into it—filming, lighting, cuts, transitions, learning a whole new editing style from scratch. I imagined it getting thousands of views, imagined the momentum it would create, the validation it would bring.

It got 200 views.

I set a goal to reach 500 followers by the end of February. I'm sitting at 55. No sales. No bookings. No leads. Just me, working harder than I've ever worked, with nothing tangible to show for it yet. And somewhere along the way, I stopped enjoying the process. I started obsessing over metrics. Every video I scrolled past on TikTok, I wasn't watching the content. I was counting the likes, the views, the comments. I was comparing my month one to someone else's year three. I was looking sideways at others whose paths seemed easier, whose success seemed to come without the grinding, solitary work I've been doing.

I was suffocating under the weight of my own expectations.

Paris, France

Here's what I realized: my validation has to come from obedience over outcomes.

I can't control whether 200 views becomes 2,000. I can't control whether someone books an itinerary this month or six months from now. I can't control the algorithm, the timing, or who discovers my work when. But I can control whether I show up. Whether I create. Whether I stay consistent, even when no one is watching.

Expectation is control. It's me trying to dictate the timeline, the path, the proof that I'm on the right track. But faith? Faith is trusting the destination without demanding to know every step of the journey.

God gave me this vision. He put Eventrixe in my heart, and I know—I know—He will take it far. But I've been trying to do His job. I've been obsessing over metrics instead of focusing on my obedience. I've been measuring success by views and likes instead of by whether I showed up and did the work He called me to do. The space between vision and validation is where faith is built. It's uncomfortable. It's slow. It's the place where you can't see the full picture yet, and you have to trust anyway.

Barcelona, Spain

So how do we shift our focus? How do we stop letting expectations steal our joy?

Here are three things I'm doing starting now:

1. Stop checking metrics daily.
I'm picking two days a week—Wednesday and Sunday—to look at my numbers. The other five days? I post and move on. I don't look at views, likes, comments. I let the work exist without needing immediate validation.

2. Replace the obsession with redirection.
When I catch myself wanting to compare or check the numbers, I'm going to stop, say a prayer, and remind myself: God's got this. My job is obedience. Then I'm moving on to the next thing.

3. Redefine success.
Success is not a viral video. It's not 500 followers by February. Success is showing up consistently, creating with excellence, and trusting the process. If I did that this week, I've already won.

The greatest things in life take time. Beautiful things are built slowly, deliberately, with patience and faith. The miracle isn't in the overnight success; it's in the daily obedience when no one is watching yet.

You don't need to see the whole staircase. You just need to take the next step.

Right now, my job isn't to figure out how to get from 55 followers to 50,000. It's not to map out the entire path from here to "successful business." My job is just to get from A to B. Post this week's content. Film the next video. Show up tomorrow.

A to B is the hardest part—because it's where the vision is still invisible to everyone else. But once I get there? The path to C becomes clear. Then D. And before I know it, I'll look up and realize I'm further along than I ever imagined, not because I had the whole route mapped out, but because I just kept taking the next step.

So here's what I'm learning: let your results be found in your obedience. If you showed up, if you created, if you stayed faithful to the vision, you've already succeeded. Everything else? That's God's job. The visibility, the reach, the outcomes, the timing, that's not yours to control.

Stop trying to write the whole story. Just write the next sentence.

And let God handle how it all comes together.