A personal mission statement defines who you are as a person and discusses your purpose in life and in a work setting. These mission statements should be the cornerstone of your business. They allow you to define your purpose and should describe your vision. This statement forces clarity and should motivate you to make positive changes in life and in business. Here are tips to get you started:
People – Think of a person in your life that you admire. Think about their qualities and the character they display. Determine what qualities you would like to emulate and add it to your mission statement.
Ideal Self – Define who you want to be and reflect your core values. Consider the roles that you have in life. If you are a spouse, what do you want to be in that role. If you are a parent, how do you want your children to be and what role do you want to play in their lives. If you are a boss, how do you want your employees to feel about you and how do you want your business to look to others. Consider the legacy you want to leave with others.
Purpose – Think of your purpose and who you are. Set goals for your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual sides. For example, if your goal is to be a life-long learner, consider expanding skills and picking up new hobbies to keep learning.
Skills – Think about your skills and what you are best at and what it is that you actually enjoy. You should discuss your strengths and focus on what you do well in life. Organize your skills and focus on these for your statement.
Define Goals – Determine what goals you would like to achieve. They should be measurable and achievable in nature. The goals should be results-focused to determine what is coming out of your hard work. Goals should be set in relationships and at work.
Craft – Now that you have all the pieces to your mission statement, begin crafting your statement. It should be written in bullet points and it should be crafted with powerful words that really speak for you and what you want to represent.
Refine – The last phase of a personal mission statement is to refine your statement. It usually starts out with many words and lots of points you want to convey. It then needs to analyzed and refined to become a complete and concise expression of what you would like to show to others. This refining process could take weeks and it should be reviewed daily and tweaked until you have come up with your perfect statement that represents everything about you.
Your personal mission statement should discuss a problem in the world with a solution and how you are going to attack the problem in a different way from others. It should also give the best version of yourself in the statement with discussions on your passions and experience, that sets you apart from others.
