Do you understand the difference between Goal Setting and Creating a Mission Statement?
Many don’t because the difference, while important, is subtle. Goals are WHAT you want to do; Mission Statements are much more the WHY. Goals tend to be hard and specific, single acts of self-improvement; Mission Statements are softer and more general and life-long. Your goals need to connect into who you are, your personal motivations, beliefs, desires and passions. WHY do I want this goal? Why is it important to me? If I achieve it, how will I be different? Feel? If I don’t achieve it how will I feel? Without that emotional tie in to your psychological foundation, many good hearted resolutions fall by the wayside.
Creating an authentic Mission Statement requires self-knowledge, an awareness of who you are, your world view, how you tend to frame things, your inner dialogue, your triggers, and how you respond to events and stimuli. Journaling is incredibly valuable in developing strong sense of self.
Crafting a viable Mission Statement takes time and effort. Your first draft is but that; to be effective you need to work it, test it out, observe how well it motivates you, calls to you, sings to you, and connects with you. Properly done, it is a living document, your personal constitution that you refer to when you feel lost, a north star that guides you in troubled time. A Mission Statement says “These things I know to be true, here I stand, this is who I am, who I am choosing to be come, this is the outline, the sketch of the masterpiece I am creating daily.”
Closing Quotes:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung, 1875-1961, founder, analytical psychology
“A mission statement is not something you write overnight…it becomes your constitution, the expression of your vision and values, the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.” – Stephen R. Covey. 1932-2012
As always, I share what I most want/need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
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