The other day I was working on the mission statement and vision for the two non-profit foundations I’m involved with and it got me thinking. The same focus and intention we set for our businesses can also be applied to our lives with great results.
Our lives deserve some loving direction to make sure we stay on track with what we love to do. So why not write a mission statement for our lives somewhat like we’d do for a business?
Creating a mission statement for our lives provides us with something to refer back to throughout the years to help us stay in sync with our passions.
The following exercise is a great clarifying tool to better understand our purpose and intentions.
Mission statement –> aligning with our purpose
Our life’s mission statement is a brief description of our fundamental purpose and how we accomplish it. If you need help figuring out your life’s purpose before starting with your mission statement, refer to How to find your purpose in life.
1. Create broad strokes
Create a sentence that can encompass all aspects of who you are. Your main mission statement is supposed to be the essence of your being. A mission statement answers the question:
“Why do I exist?”
I know this question seems pretty daunting, but if we think of it in broader terms, it’s a bit more manageable. Usually the reason we are here is not to be a lawyer, a writer, a father, and so on. These are just expressions of our mission.
If you could sum it up in one sentence, what would you say is your reason to exist? It can be something as broad as “to give love”, “to be love”, “to be a beacon of light”, and “to share happiness”. Stay quiet for a moment and listen to the answer that comes to you.
2. Fine tuning it
Once you’ve identified your mission in broad brush strokes, it’s time to fine tune it by including some more details.
A life mission statement also answers the questions of what are the things that we do well and how do we express these talents. By answering the following questions we can better support our fundamental purpose.
As you answer the following questions, let things flow freely out of you as a stream of ideas, words, sentences, and concepts.
What are the opportunities or needs that we’d like our life to address?
Include how you would like to use your main purpose in life to serve others or to provide some benefit to the world.
What are we doing to address these needs?
Include the activities that you’re passionate about that can help you achieve your purpose. By listing these activities you stay focused on what aligns you with your mission instead of straying into other activities that are not as supporting of your life’s main purpose.
What principles or beliefs guide our work?
The values and beliefs that you hold are going to influence how you interact with life. List your main beliefs and values to ensure your mission statement stays in agreement with them.
3. Make it manageable
Now that you’ve gathered a lot of information about your purpose, your passions, how to deliver them, and the values that guide them, combine it all into a few sentences. Try to be brief while hitting the main points. This will help you stay focused whenever you refer to your mission statement.
Consider the following tips when drafting a mission statement for your life. Your mission statement should…
- Communicate your life’s purpose in a manner that generates support and ongoing commitment.
- Inspire yourself and those around you.
- Convey your thoughts in a manner that is persuasive and easy to understand.
- Use proactive verbs to describe what you do.
- Be short enough so you can readily repeat it.
- Use positive language.
“Brite-size” dose of happiness
To expand our consciousness, grow, and transform it’s important that we practice daily the principles we learn. Here is the brite-size dose of happiness for us to practice this week:“In whatever you do in life, stay true to your life’s mission statement.”
I’ll be covering this topic on my weekly Britetalk Radio show. If you’d like, tune in to explore this topic a little deeper.
Your turn:
How do you feel about creating a mission statement for your life? Do you have a values clarification process that you use to stay tuned to your inner goals? Please share.
With you always in my heart,
Andrea
A gift for you
If you’re having trouble figuring your purpose, check out Life Lessons—The Best Self-Reflections From 108 Bloggers from Abubakar Jamil and Farnoosh Brook. This free ebook (no subscription necessary) is a compilation of articles by 108 bloggers reflecting on their lives while providing what they’ve learned along the years, most often, the hard way. I hope you enjoy it.
Enjoy this post?
If you like this article, subscribe via RSS or by email. Also, please tweet it, share it on Facebook, use the social buttons below to add it on your favorite social sites, or send it via email. I’d appreciate it.
Google+
Hi Andrea! I LOVE the idea of creating a mission statement for your life. I’ve often said this exact thing to people I’ve worked with from a pastoral coaching perspective. To quote from Will Smith’s line in “Hitch,” “I like to live every day as if it were on purpose.”
It’s hard to know where you’re going if you don’t know what you’re going after. And a mission statement helps you to know exactly how you want your life to be. Blessings to you, my friend. I hope you’re having a wonderful month!
HI Bryan! I’m having a wonderful month. :) Brilliant line from Hitch. Great to see that you followed this perspective. Having a clear focus for our live can be a life changing experience.
Thanks for starting the conversation. Loving blessings!
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the great writing assignment. I’ve always wanted to do this but wasn’t sure how to go about it. I can’t wait to do this! Thanks for these tips – it’s just what I needed to get motivated! Take care!
Hi Dandy,
Good luck with it. I hope you enjoy this process. Like I said, it provides a lot of clarity. :)
Thanks for your excitement. Loving blessings!
Andrea,
This is an outstanding idea. I have never ever thought of making a persoal mission statement. I have a statement for everything else in my life so why not apply it there. The thought of having a mission statement to help keep me focused will keep me moving towards purpose and help me stop wasting time on things that don’t matter.
Thanks
Hi Frank,
You got it. That’s exactly the point: Having something to clarify our purpose and keep us focused. :) A clear intent can be very helpful.
Thanks for brightness. Loving blessings
I think it’s a great idea Andrea. We do it for our careers, so why not for our lives, too. Here’s stab at a mission statement for my life: The mission of my life is to share my heart and to connect the hearts of others.
Thanks for the inspiration,
Alex
Hi Alex,
That’s beautiful. I love it. I did a Life Purpose Journey a little back and what I got was “to be love”. That stuck with me. Yours is very similar. :)
Thanks for sharing. Loving blessings
This is great Andrea. Everyone needs a mission statement. I love how easy you make it. When it comes to my purpose I’ll go with “to be a beacon of light”.
With your tips I can now fine tune it. Thanks many bunches, Andrea.
Now I’ll let you go and get to the fine tuning.
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
Another great purpose. You surely shine your light very brightly. :) Fine tune it and you’ve got a winner.
Thanks for your light. Loving blessings
I love the idea of creating a mission statement for one’s life! Such a great way to maintain focus when there is so much busyness – and things pulling us in many directions. – knowing it can be fine tuned is great too – it’s a way to create it and shape it as we continue living true to purpose.
:)
Hi Aileen,
I totally agree that we can get lost in the busyness of our lives. It’s very helpful to use focus tools like a mission statement to help us along. It can make all the difference.
Thanks for your clarity. Loving blessings
I really like the fact you started off with painting the broad strokes.
I’m a “why” guy and I especially like the fact that you lead with your “why.” I think “why” is the key to getting back on your path, when you get knocked down.
Hi J.D.,
It makes all the difference when we know why we’re doing something. It provides motivation and value to our actions. That’s why this exercise was so clarifying for me.
Thanks for the reminder. Loving blessings
This is a very challenging post if you really try to apply it. I like to think of my mission statement for life in layers, creative, spiritual, family (this one comes first), business, understanding existence and the universe. Each category has its own goals, its own mission. The tricky part is to make joy the common thread to all of it…
Hi Grandmaster Zo,
I tend to believe that we have a main purpose that weaves into all areas of our lives. Following this purpose gives clarity to all areas in our lives. That being said, sure, we can divide our mission in sections like you mentioned. We all see life in different ways and have different ways to process our experience. Whatever works for you, I’d say try it. :)
Thanks for your creativity. Loving blessings
Hi Andrea – such a great idea. I did a post some months ago promoting to create a personal slogan. Similar lines – but this post was brilliant!
Thank you for sharing. Something that I’m going to do for sure.
[you're so creative]
Thank you!
Hi JK,
I suppose creating a slogan is like creating a brand. It’s about defining our identity. A mission statement is about defining our purpose in life and how to stay aligned with it. I can see how there are similarities there. :)
Thanks for our input. Loving blessings
That is an empowering exercise, Andrea. Many folks drift through their lives taking any road that comes along, simply because they have been told, “It really doesn’t matter.” It is wise to turn up the volume on “I have a mission, and it really does matter what I do.” When we are convinced our life mission really matters, our powerful nature suddenly strikes through.
Hi Rob,
Yes, it does matter. Everything we do and every step we take matters. We take it all for granted though. Connecting with our purpose is a beautiful way to walk this earth making sure it all matters. :)
Thanks for the reminder. Loving blessings
Steve Jobs,the CEO of Apple Computer once said,”I want to put a ding in the universe.” I agree with him.We are in this world not here in this world to live life but to make our mark in it.That is should be the purpose of our existence.
Hi Rich,
Interesting concept, a ding in the universe. I don’t know if I’ll make that kind of a ding. :) All I can say is that I’ll try to fulfill my purpose the best way I can and we’ll see what happens.
Thanks for your wonderful perspective. Loving blessings
Hello Andrea,
Here is another quote from Steve Jobs in relation to your wonderful article.
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.Life is brief, and then you die, you know?And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
Loving blessings!!
Regards,
Rich
Powerful statement for being in the now and making the best of it. I love it! Many blessings
Hi Andrea
Just had a look at step one… ““Why do I exist?”
Do the steps after that get easier or harder? LOL
Guess for me the answer to that would be around family.
Time to move on to fine tuning and making it manageable.
For one moment, I thought that I was going to fall at the first hurdle.
Hi Keith,
You’re too funny. It definitely gets easier after step one. There wouldn’t be a way to get any harder than that. Now that you figured the first item, good luck getting the rest of the mission statement done. :)
Thanks for your sense of humor. Loving blessings
Hi Andrea,
Very wonderful post. It is very crucial that we create a mission statement for our life. If we don’t have a mission statement, then it would be very difficult to go after our goals and what we desire. After all, how can we go after our goals if we don’t know exactly what our mission is? As always great job Andrea and thanks for sharing :)
Hi Dia,
Sometimes we do go after goals that are not in alignment with our life’s purpose. One of the reasons to do a mission statement is create goals and activities that support our purpose instead of bouncing from one thing to another. :)
Thanks for your beauty. Loving blessings
A mission statement is a mantra for living. I think one simple over arching phrase that’s memorable and remarkable is also powerful and magical too Andrea so a great post to make us think. It defines our contribution and existence and resonates and vibrates all that it states out into the world. Darn, you see you’ve given me homework to do now and I’d thought I’d left school – guess I’m at the University of Life instead waiting to graduate. Blessings from the classroom!
Hi John,
I also like the simplicity of one powerful phrase. Easier to remember and we can use as a mantra to reminds us of our purpose. Now go on to your homework but no worries, you’re at the top of the class. :)
Thanks for your sweetness. Loving blessings
Hi Andrea,
Having a purpose and a mission in life is so important. I recently sat down and spent a few hours thinking about my mission statement, and was surprised that I actually now know in my life the things that I want to achieve, to do and to be.
I have always been unsure and undecided. Not anymore. I still have ideas that come and go, but now I determine their worth based on my goals and the direction that I have chosen.
I encourage everyone to take time to reflect on where they are in life, where they have come from and where they want to be heading.
Hi David,
Beautiful that you took time to reflect and figure out your mission. I use my mission statement in the same way: as a guideline to determine my activities and actions. It not an easy exercise and it might take a while for us to fine tune it but it’s definitely a great clarification tool for our lives. :)
Thanks for your clarity. Loving blessings
Hi Andrea! Thanks for the tips, I would like to share with you my life statement:
LIFE STATEMENT
I will go through this life only once,
and I shall have but one chance to live;
Not all people will like me,
others may even despise me,
as I may not be easily understood;
Yet I will take this chance to live,
and I will reach out in ways I know;
I will love those whom I can,
and I will strive to understand them more;
Not all days will bring me sunshine,
so I will rejoice also for the rain;
Not every endeavor will be a success,
but I will savor the victories I achieve;
Not all dreams I dream will be mine,
but in time new dreams will fill my heart,
and as from a star
those hopes will propel me forward
doing everything the best way I know I can;
No fear shall trample me whatsoever,
though some tasks seem to outweigh my strength;
I will only do what I have to do,
and God will take care of the rest!
Awesome Life Statement Joyce, sounds very empowering
Hi Joyce,
Wow, so beautiful. It’s like a life poem. There is a lot of humility in your words, I love that. I agree, very empowering. I admire your bold statement: No fear shall trample me whatsoever. You go, girl. Live life to the fullest. :)
Thanks for your creativity. Many loving blessings
Hi Andrea,
What a terrific guide to creating a mission statement for our life. With a simple mission statement like this, we will never get off track!
Hi Sandra,
Totally. After creating a mission statement, we have to actually use it so we don’t get off track. Practice makes it perfect. :)
Great to see you my friend. Many loving blessings
excellent guide Andrea
your posts are always full of positivity
keep it up :)
Hi Farouk! Thanks for your support and your kind words. Many loving blessings