The Power of a Personal Mission Statement

A personal mission statement is a powerful thing.  It helps guide your life; makes it more integra8ed! How often have we made seemingly small choices that had a significant impact on us down the road (both good and bad).  A personal mission statement can help keep our lives congruent.  Who you want to be, what you want to do, what you want to have are not easy to accomplish without stated values that keep you true to being you!

I’ve been going through a very intense time of evaluating my life; the who, what, where, when, how and why.   I’ve had various personal mission statements but I think I’ve finally landed on one that I can stick to.  My who is to be a catalyst, a challenger, an “activator” for good. I have always loved helping people.  When I traveled through Europe, I would be constantly stopping to help other travelers to help them get to where they were going even if I didn’t know myself.  I figured two heads were always better than one and of course I could also make a new friend!

So my new mission statement is: “I exist to create value in the world around me by identifying and addressing needs, fostering love, community and personal responsibility.”  Ok, so I’ve got the helping people thing in there, love (agape/unconditional love) is always good; community - our connection with all of humanity and personal responsibility which, for me addresses the whole person, mind, body and spirit; our responsibility to take care of ourselves, others and God’s beautiful earth.  And the only reason I included “personal” is when it comes to responsibility, it’s easy to think it’s someone elses.  It’s my belief that if I’m going to help make the world a better place then it has to has to start with me.

If you don’t have a personal mission statement, here are some tools that I used to develop mine:

• As you reflect on your past, what moved or stirred you?  What brought you great joy and fulfillment?  When were you at your best?
• This will help you figure out what you NEED to be doing to feel alive.
• What are your values?  Here is a list from www.SelfCounseling.com but this is in no way an extensive list. You can find many more values if you simply search online.  

Achievement	Friendships	Physical challenge
Advancement & promotion	Growth	Pleasure
Adventure	Having a family	Power and authority
Affection (love and caring)	Helping other people	Privacy
Arts	Helping society	Public service
Challenging problems	Honesty	Purity
Change and variety	Independence	Quality
Close relationships	Influencing others	Quality relationships
Community	Inner harmony	Recognition
Competence	Integrity	Religion
Competition	Intellectual status	Reputation
Cooperation	Involvement	Responsibility accountability
Country	Job tranquility	Security
Creativity	Knowledge	Self-Respect
Decisiveness	Leadership	Serenity
Democracy	Location	Sophistication
Ecological awareness	Loyalty	Stability
Economic security	Market position	Status
Effectiveness	Meaningful work	Supervising others
Efficiency	Merit	Time freedom
Ethical practice	Money	Truth
Excellence	Nature	Wealth
Excitement	Honesty	Wisdom
Fame	Order / Stability	Work under pressure
Fast living	Personal development	Work with others
Financial gain	Freedom	Working alone

• Think about ways that you want to make a difference in the world. What do you want your legacy or unique contribution to be?  
• How is it that you are going to accomplish your goal of making it a better place?  Think about what you need to do to be able to sustain this mission.

Having a personal mission statement doesn’t mean that you won’t make bad choices in the future but it certainly makes it a little easier when you have something to measure your decisions against.  

Please let me know if you have any additional suggestions!  Thanks so much