Personal Mission Statement

What is a Mission?
An inner urge to pursue an activity or perform a service.
A calling
what one intends to do or achieve 
what is your Mission?
What is your Aim ? your ambition ? your dream? Goal? Intent? Objective? Target?

Do you even have a Mission?
I think you do.
It is up to you to find what guides you? …what inspires you ?
What gets you out of bed each morning..

What does your Mission have to be?
Does your Mission have to be huge or to be worthy?
Must it be big enough to change the world
NO!
Just big enough to change your world? Your life? Your future?
I believe you can be what you choose
You can choose what you value, dream of, hope for, become.

I know you find us again talking about Mission Statements. Last issue we covered Organizational Mission Statements that are the driving force behind high productivity, quality products, customer satisfaction, and substantial profits not just lofty aspirations proposed by top brass and viewed by employees as senseless gimmicks to promote worker dedication and enthusiasm. Steven Covey points out that mission statements are often not taken seriously in organizations because they are developed by top executives, and there’s no buy-in at the lower levels. But it's a pretty safe assumption that there probably is buy-in when we develop our own mission statements. 

Having a Mission Statement adds focus, direction, and a sense of purpose to your daily direction. But how in the world do you go about crafting one? That’s what I invite you to do now!

Close your eyes. Try to visualize the following. You’ve lived a fulfilling, rewarding life, and it is now your eightieth birthday. Imagine that all of the  people you love are there to celebrate with you and pay you tribute. There are people from your personal and professional life, and friends and neighbors from the community. What would you like them to say? In other words, what do you want to be remembered for?….Start by writing the tribute you would like to receive from each person.

Now, you drafted your first script of your mission Statement. Yet you cannot have a sincere Mission Statement without having clear Values and Roles.

Start with asking yourself what are your governing values? Then prioritize these values and finally clarify each. Oftentimes values and priorities are used synonymously because our values are the top priorities in our lives. By ordering your values in sequence, you will be able to decide which areas in your life needs the most focus in a particular time. In order to determine what your governing values are, you must determine your highest priorities. Is your top priority spending time with your family? Then your governing value would simply be “family”. do you see consistently turning in quality work as a priority? Your value in this case might be “professionalism”. If you view being on time to all your appointments as a priority, you obviously value “punctuality”. 

As you identify a value, you also need to clarify it. Your interpretation of a value may not be exactly the same as someone else’s. To you integrity might mean “I never tell lies,” but to someone else it might connote “I am honest and trustworthy in my personal and business dealings.” By clarifying your values, they become more real to you. When you write your clarifying statements, be sure to use positive terms such as “I am”, “I do”, “I will”.

Adventure Authenticity Balance Beauty  Career  Compassion
Courage Education Fitness  Gratitude Humor  Integrity
Love  Loyalty Patience Respect Spirituality Teamwork
……  etc. ….

After identifying your Values, now what are your roles. A role describes an area of responsibility in your life. For example, a common role for many people is “parent”. In the role of parent, your responsibilities might be to meet the needs of your children – be with them, take them to their events, etc. All of those duties can now be separated in your “parent” role. To keep things simple, try combining functions to keep your total number of roles seven or less. 
Wife/mother, dentist, artist, Rotary member
Leader, facilitator, account manager, friend, son

Also list the key people associated with each role. For example, in your role as a parent, the key people associated with that role would be your children. Finally, write a clarifying statement that defines your ideal performance in that role. If you have a role as an Account Manager, your clarifying statement might read, “I consistently acquire new accounts and maintain the ones I have by delivering the best service and results to my clients.

Now that you’ve identified your governing values and key roles, think again about your life’s purpose. Covey refers to crafting a mission statement as "connecting with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes in fulfilling it." A good mission statement succinctly defines you. It describes what you are trying to accomplish and what you value. It explains "who you are, what you do, where you're headed". A Mission Statement will provide you with a vision of the future and a basis for strategic long-term planning. 

These questions will begin to uncover ideas you can use when you write your Mission Statement.
1. If you were to do one thing in your professional life that would have the most positive impact, what would that one thing be?
2. If you were to do one thing in your personal life that would have the most  
positive impact, what would that one thing be?
3. What are all the things you would like to have during your lifetime (e.g. a new home, computer, $100,000 in your bank account, etc.)
4. What are all the things you would like to do(e.g. travel to every continent, finish your Masters, work for NGO’s, etc.)
5. What is the kind of person you want to be (e.g. compassionate, hard-working, humorous, responsible, etc)
6. What have been some of your greatest moments of happiness and fulfillment?
7. What activities do you most enjoy and find most fulfilling in your professional life?
8. What are the activities of most worth in your personal life?
9. What talents and/or capacities do you have or want to have?
10. How can you best contribute to the world?

Writing a personal mission statement offers the opportunity to establish what’s important and perhaps make a decision to stick to it before we even start a career. Or it enables us to chart a new course when we're at a career crossroads. The idea is that if you live by a statement of what’s really important to you, you can make better time-management decisions. "Why worry about saving minutes when you might be wasting years?"

What would your life story be about? What have you devoted your time and talents to? A Mission Statement becomes a personal standard for you, a self-created road map of how you will choose to live amid the unpredictable circumstances and emotions that affect your life. As Covey points out, some people are inspired by the mission statements of others, while some are inhibited. 

Sample Mission Statements:

• Be humble, considerate, honest, kind, loving, and most importantly forgiving, but wise. 

• Give unselfishly to the needy, but try to provide tools for success as well: i.e., offer a job and a handout. 

• Provide limitless love to my children and my other family members. Allow them to grow and develop unhindered of what I think is best; but allow them to painfully discover what is best for themselves. Set wide boundaries within which they may develop, wide enough where they can make decisions they will anguish over but close enough that they will know how much I love them and that I will always morally support them. Say yes, unless there is a very good and explainable answer for no. Allow them to color in their own future, not striving for any perceived expectations of my own or other people in their lives. 

• Keep my word. 

• Find weaknesses in myself and situations and choose to improve them. 

• Work and play where my integrity cannot be compromised. 

• Resolution By: Mahatma Gandhi
Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:
I shall not fear anyone on earth.
I shall fear only God.
I shall not bear ill toward anyone.
I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
I shall conquer untruth by truth.
And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering. 

Source: Mission Newsletter – Issue 10

This article is provided by LTC