A Spark by Innocent Mwatsikesimbe from The Vision, chapter 15

A decision about who you want to be doesn’t stay in the corner of your mind where you made it. It works through everything and polarizes what it touches: interactions and choices start sorting themselves into for you or against you and your vision.

That sorting is the use of it. Contrasts come into focus — challenge and solution, setback and progress, failure and success — and the idea guides your steps. While you still hold it, you won’t knowingly do the thing that would kill your dream, and what arrives can’t move you: “adversity or pleasure, golden handshakes or fake promises, arduous circumstances or good days”.

Effort made with that idea in view gets you nearer to it. Which is why the bar Innocent sets isn’t a perfect idea but simply having one: “not having one borders death.”