Mission Statement
What is My Mission? We all have a mission in life: an inner urge to pursue an activity or perform a service. And it’s up to all of us to discover what guides us, inspires us, and motivates us to get out of bed every morning.
Some of us are daunted by the word “mission” and immediately think of Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela – people who had grand visions for a better world. But does you mission have to change the world? Of course not. It only has to change YOUR world. Your mission statement is your written permission to do what is most important to you, most exciting to you, most YOU.
Unit Objectives – This unit will give you the insight and step-by-step process to create your own mission statement. By the conclusion of the unit, you will possess a personal mission statement that reflects your highest values. Finding the You that You Always Wanted to Be As the popular 1996 film Jerry Maguire opens, the protagonist, played by Tom Cruise, is grappling with a number of issues that make him question the person he has become. These issues offend his set of values. Sports agent Maguire goes so far as to say he hates himself – and then corrects himself to say he hates “his place in the world”.
So, he writes his own mission statement. Among the values he refers to are “simple pleasures,” “protecting clients in health and injury,” “caring,” and being “the me I always wanted to be.” Above all, the mission statement inspires him to say: “I’d started my life”.
Jerry Maguire says that the people in his business, including himself, had forgotten what was important. Writing a personal mission statement offers the opportunity to establish what’s important in our lives – in not just our careers, but our personal lives too. Stephen Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, refers to crafting a mission statement as “connecting with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes in fulfilling it.” A mission statement can help you to become the “you you always wanted to be.”
A personal mission statement based on your vision and values becomes a personal constitution, the basis for making both major, life-directing decisions and those daily decisions that need to be made amid the circumstances and emotions that affect our lives.
With a sense of your own mission, you have the essence of your own pro-activity. You have the vision and values to direct your life. You have the power of a written constitution based on correct principles, against which every decision concerning the most effective use of your time, your talents, and your energies can be effectively measured.
Dreaming and Scheming The following questions are designed to assist you during the ‘dreaming and scheming’ process of designing your mission statement. They should provoke thought and get you thinking about your “own unique purpose”.
Describe yourself in one word.
Name three things you would do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
What are your greatest strengths?
Complete your motto: “In _________________________________ I trust”
Write down three things you deeply enjoy doing.
What qualities do you most admire in others?
Who is the one person that has made the greatest positive impact on your life?
Why was this person able to have such a significant impact?
What have been your happiest moments in life? Why?
Complete your motto: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of _____________________”.
Describe three qualities you think are essential in a life partner.
When you daydream, what do you see yourself doing?
Examine your work life. What activities do you consider of greatest worth?
Examine your work life. What activities do you consider of greatest worth?
What talents do you have that no one else really knows about?
If there were two rules everyone had to follow, what would they be?
Ursula Knecht
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/finding-the-you-that-you-always-wanted-to-be-part-one-of-two-751964.html
