When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming together it is the beginning of reality.
– Dom Helder Camara

Martin E. Seligman, bestselling author of Authentic Happiness, describes how having a vision for work increases both the happiness of a leader and people throughout an organization. “Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you.” He explains that life will have more meaning because of “attachment to something larger than you.”

Ann Pelo and Margie Carter, in their popular and important book, From Teaching to Thinking, provide an example of a vision statement from a program called Hilltop Children’s Center:

“We want educators at Hilltop to be on fire about their work; to feel competent, excited, curious, and profoundly attentive to children. We strive to be a program in which educators move between theory and practice, with a solid understanding of the thinking underneath our teaching practices and with lively teaching practices that set each classroom alight. We commit to knowing the children intimately, and to living alongside them in ways that communicate our affection, delight, and regard.”

Do you have a vision statement for your work? If so, now might be a good time to review it. If not, now might be a good time to create one.