How To Write A Personal Mission Statement
February 4, 2008 | In Mindset |
One of the most important ways you can change your life is by writing a personal mission statement. I first read about doing this in the summer of 2005. Although writing the statement gave me a lot of clarity and direction, finding a template or directions was difficult. I took a little bit from several places and cobbled it together. Since it was such a valuable exercise, I figured I would pass on what I learned to you, so that you don’t have to go on the same wild goose chase I did.
Photo by aussiegall
First Things First
The kind of mission statement I’m referring to is a mission statement for your life, not for a specified period of time, or for finding a new job/career. If you do a search online for personal mission statement, you will find many references to switching careers or for specified periods of time (5 years, 10 years). I believe a mission statement for your whole life is more useful; it gives you a much broader picture and doesn’t expire. It answers the questions: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life?
If you look at mission statements, you will see several variations on the structure. I settled on a simple two part statement. Part one is a one sentence summary of my mission and purpose in life. Part two is a list of statements that expand upon the purpose statement to clarify; I referred to this section with the words: “I will be guided by the following values and principles…”
The Purpose Statement
This is the meat of the personal mission statement. Once you have this part written, the rest will fall into place. It is also the hardest part of the whole exercise. If you already have an idea of your purpose in life, you are ahead of the game. Many people do not know, however.
My purpose statement is: My mission is to experience life through loving John and teaching others. In order to formulate this purpose, I looked at several things. Thinking about these things may help you as well:
1. Is there something you’ve always dreamed of doing or being? For me it was being a teacher.
2. Is there a service you have always been drawn to giving/providing? For instance, minister, firefighter, social worker
3. If you won the lottery, what would you do? Would you continue to do your job? Would you quit your job to do something else?
4. If you won the lottery, is there a particular cause that you would support generously?
5. Have you had any spiritual experiences, or flashes of intuition where you knew that something was right for you? I had this happen to me when I first started dating John, my now husband. I just knew he was for me.
6. What are you most proud of accomplishing in the past? Why are you proud of it?
7. Is there anything you do now, or want to do now that would devastate you if you couldn’t do it anymore?
8. If your life was threatened right now, what would you regret not accomplishing the most?
9. What about you or your life, do you know, under no uncertain conditions, do you not want to change? What do you absolutely want to stay the same? I listed things like my gender, my sense of humor, my relationship with friends.
Answering some or all of these questions should give you a good idea of what gives your life meaning. You many not be able to do this in one afternoon. I found it took me several days. I wrote list after list of things that were important to me. When I looked back over the lists, I found that my husband and teaching stood out for me as something I repeated over and over.
Play with this, dream, and have fun. No one has to see this but you, and no one is judging you for any ideas you contemplate in doing this task. Once you are pretty sure that you know your purpose, take the time to craft a clear, concise statement. “My mission is…” There’s no limit to what it can include, or how long it is. However, make it as clear and direct as possible.
The Values And Principles
As you formed your purpose statement, you probably had a lot of other important values come up. For me, integrity, loyalty, personal responsibility and caring for others were important to me. However, these didn’t quite fit with the purpose statement, rather they describe how I was to accomplish the purpose statement.
Your values and principles can be as many as you want, or as long as you want; however, as with the purpose statement clear and direct is better. I initially aimed for between 5 and 10 supporting statements and ended up narrowing down to the top 8.
First, I looked at values that supported the two parts of my statement. The first part: My mission is to experience life through loving John. It was important to me that I do my very best to love him with all my heart and with all his faults, and to support him as best as I could. My first principle then became: I love John unconditionally and support him in every way possible.
The second part of my purpose statement is: (My mission is to experience life through) teaching others. As I had crafted my purpose statement, I thought about the teachers I had loved the most and learned the most from. I narrowed down the list of qualities they had and I wanted to emulate. My second principle then became: I am caring and enthusiastic in helping others to learn and succeed.
Once I had two principles that covered the values most directly related to my purpose statement, I looked at the rest of my life and the kind of person I strive to be at all times. Your mission statement should describe your ideal personality and behavior. The following areas are ones I covered, that you may want to pursue as well:
1. Health. You must be in good health in order to carry out our purpose.
2. The values that define your personality. For me that was integrity, loyalty, personal responsibility, and prejudice free
3. Spirituality.
4. Friends.
5. Family.
6. Your environment. This could be your home, or how you conduct yourself with regards to the larger environment of your community, or the planet as a whole
These are just some ideas. Ultimately, you are the only one who can determine what your top values are. If you are torn between two, see if they can be combined. Alternatively, include them both.
No matter what you choose to include, all your values should support your mission statement, and they all should be worded in a sentence that can serve as a firm guideline for conducting your life. In other words, you should have clear statements, not just lists of values.
Examples and Guides
I will admit that some of the wording I used as inspiration for my mission statement I borrowed from here and there around the web. I also looked at lots of corporate mission statements. I found this practice very useful. The following is a good list of mission statements you may find useful as guides and examples:
The Whole Statement
When you have all the pieces, put them together in a clear, succinct way. Then, take the time to make it special. You could print it out on special paper. If you have a photo editing program, add graphics. I typed my statement and principles into one slide on a presentation program, such as Microsoft Powerpoint. There are lots of free templates online you can use to make it look great. Remember, this as a statement of your purpose in life - the reason you are here on Earth. This is important, so make it look important. Even if no one else sees it, you should feel good when you look at it.
Now you have a personal mission statement. Most likely, crafting this document was enlightening. I found it to really clarify my goals in life and how I looked at the world. You may have discovered, as I did, that my mission was not being carried out as best as I could the way I was living my life. This exercise was the start of my road of transformation, leading me to pursue my dreams. I hope that your mission statement has similar effect.
Please let me know how it went or any other thoughts in the comments below. I’m looking forward to hearing how this helped others.
Cathedral Photo by Bakar2007_2008 and Nature Trail Photo by bfick
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Cathy,
It is nice to see you so engaged in your life, how it is shaped, how you want to shape it.
I can see all the tools you have written about so far have given you valuable guidance. The work you put in to make things happen is evident.
Continued best wishes,
Barbara
I have come a long way, but I know I still have a lot farther to go. However, I want to share what I have learned so far, and hope that it helps someone else.
As you pointed out, it is work to change your life. All I can do is keep chipping away at it, bit by bit.
Thanks Cathy,
My mission is: to shed light. I do this by engaging with others on things of importance. So, I’m some kind of therapist-teacher or teacher-therapist. I’ve never found one word for it.
I think your mission sounds great.
I like that: therapist-teacher. Like a guide, or a coach. And, “to shed light” - that sounds so positive and upbeat! I like that too!
Every day, I’m doing by best to live that mission. Some days are easier than others, but I’ll remember that positive and upbeat is the best way to approach it!