Right Focus Part 1
The first part of the Right Focus Leadership Development Program is creating your personal mission statement. A Mission is a brief statement of your personal purpose. It is a description of what inspires you and motivates you at the deepest levels. Your mission statement answers questions like, “Why am I here?” “What am I here to do with my life?” and “Why do I exist?” “What is it that makes me feel alive?” “What is the essence of my passion and motivation?”
An ideal mission statement offers a greater sense of meaningful direction. Having a clearly stated mission acts as a compass to help you focus your energy into staying on a path that will lead you to success and ultimately happiness.
Characteristics of a Strong Personal Mission Statement
- Clear enough to be easily understood and communicated
- Brief enough to be easily remembered
- Inspiring enough to encourage others to want to support you. This means it must contain an element of being of service to others in some way
- Broad enough to encompass your innate talents and abilities
- Authentic enough that anyone who knows you well would agree
- Timeless enough to be accurate throughout your lifetime –there is no deadline on it
The best and most inspiring mission statements are broad, authentic, and capture the essence of what drives you to make a contribution to the world. Your mission statement should include a strong action verb such as “build” versus “try to develop;” it serves as a container of sorts for what sparks your passion in life.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing on money and/or timelines. A meaningful mission statement should encompass what you love to do above and beyond any financial gain and for all your life. It should reflect your essence.
- Incorporating what you do frequently, even though you don’t really feel energized by it. For example, suppose people are always asking you to help with their computer problems – if you don’t enjoy helping them, that shouldn’t be in your mission statement.
- Thinking your real passion isn’t noble or grand enough so you focus on what you think your mission should be because you want your mission to reflect society’s values. For example, a man who states his mission is to design, engineer and invent solutions to problems. But in reality that drains him. What he truly loves is to maintain, repair and restore broken things to working order.
Examples of Effective Personal Mission Statements
- To create beautiful environments for myself and others to blossom in
- To make people laugh and have fun so they can reduce stress
- To serve others and live my spiritual beliefs everyday
Discovering Your Personal Mission Statement
Your mission is your higher calling. It is the motivating force that underlies everything you do – Your reason for being. The following exercises are designed to help you “discover” your mission. Most people don’t have to create one; they just have to do the work that enables them to see it. These exercises and video will help you see what’s been inside you all along.