Defining Your Personal Mission Statement

What’s your mission?

I believe all of us are here for a reason … and it’s unique. The combination of your family background, culture, education, talent and personality are different from everyone else in this world. There’s something you can do that I can’t. There are people you’re influencing that I won’t.

So what’s your mission statement?

Recently, I met with some friends and discussed principles from the book “The Path” by Laurie Beth Jones. Here’s what I learned:

• Your mission statement should be short. Make it about one sentence—to the point.
  
• Your mission statement should excite you—it should represent who you are, not what you think you should be.
  
• Your mission statement should be broad enough to encompass your whole life, not just your current job or just one of the roles you have (e.g. as a mom, wife, etc.).
  
• Your mission involves others. Who you are makes an impact (positive or negative) on others. Who do you feel most called to influence? Maybe it’s broad—“people”. But for some, it’s specific—“children”, “women”, “African-Americans”, “orphans”, etc.
  
• Your mission incorporates at least one of your core values. What do you value most in life? Love? Excellence? Hope? Peace?

Jones' book provides pages of verbs and walks you through the whole process of how to write a mission statement. Most people choose two or three verbs, one value, and one people group.

Here’s mine:

“To brighten people’s lives by modeling and communicating excellence.”

A few more:

“To locate and communicate wisdom to others.”

“To teach and share love with children.”

Knowing your purpose is powerful--it can guide your career, your relationships and your life. Check out "The Path" to learn more.