As a tribal chief was dying, he summoned his three sons and said, “I must select my successor among you. Climb our holy mountain and bring to me from there the most precious gift you can find. He gave three days to accomplish the mission. Three of them left the house with the provisions for the three days. After three days, they all returned to the house. The first brought with him rough lump of native gold. The second brought with him a priceless diamond. The third returned empty handed saying, “When I reached the mountain top, I saw on the other side of the mountain a beautiful land, which is fertile and a river is running, where we could go there for a better life”. The chief said, “You have brought back the most precious gift of all: a vision for a better tomorrow”.
A vision is our vision for future. What one wants to create and achieve in future. It is our inspiration which guides one’s planning. The famous psychologist Carl Yung says, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakens”. If we have clear vision of where we want to go, we are not as easily distracted by many other possibilities and agendas that otherwise divert us. Hence vision of life helps us to stay focused, to make conscious choices, especially about our priorities and to eliminate or at least minimize our distraction. Hence vision helps one to overcome obstacles in the way and helps us to hold on especially when lives are tough.
A vision that is well defined helps us focus and create a purpose that becomes our measurement for our success. The one who does not have a vision lacks drive and one’s life becomes just a chain of events. A strong and current vision connects with one’s passions and greatest potentials. Regardless of what is going on in the world or challenges that present themselves, a vision helps one to know what and why one is doing the things that one is doing. Having a vision in life is essential in the path of one’s success in life. One feels much more valuable as a person when one sets and achieves a certain visions and goals. A vision will open us to many possibilities and a brighter and bigger future.
Often people mix up with vision and mission and make use a vision and mission statement interchangeably. But there is a difference between them. Vision is a goal that one envisages to realize in the future. Mission is the ways and actions which one envisages to utilize to achieve the goal in the future. Hence a vision precedes a mission. In taking up the mission, we should pay attention first of all to the inner game which would play in our life. In every human endeavor there are two arenas of engagement: the outer and inner. The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external obstacles to reach an external goal. The inner game takes place within the mind, such as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus and limiting concepts or assumptions. The inner game consists in the following terms: Performance, potential and intelligence. Performance can be enhanced either by growing potential or by decreasing interference. According to Tim Gallway, “Grow potential and reduce self-interference. Don’t just be a doer in life; whatever you are doing, learn, evolve and maximize your enjoyment of the limited time you are given”.
Happy New Year!

Most Rev. Dr. M. Devadass Ambrose

Bishop of Thanjavur