Every successful company, a successful leader has their own mission statement. It is not just nice words on paper or banner, it helps them prioritize their daily activities, focus on the right things, and get back on track if something goes wrong. Do you have one for yourself?
When I first started my entrepreneurial journey I lost a lot of time by following shiny distractions until I went through several exercises that helped me to define my mission statement un and create focus and my own path.
Whether you create it for yourself or for your company, your own mission statement helps identify your values and goals, defining what matters most to you or to your company. Most important it makes decision-making easier, as it clarifies whether the decisions you’re making are in alignment with what you want for your life.
In this article, I share an exercise I used to create my own so you can use my path to create your powerful mission statement.
What is a personal mission statement?
A personal mission statement is a statement that defines your values, who you are on how you define success. A personal mission statement can be used to guide your decisions and help you stay focused to meet your long-term goals. A personal mission statement creates boundaries that make decision-making easier, as it’s easier to see whether your decisions align with your long-term goals.
How to create a mission statement
Creating a mission statement may be challenging and time-consuming but in the end, it is worth spending that time. Following I will share a process that may help you to think through the most important elements in your journey and create a mission statement that resonates and make an impact. To help you with this process I have created also a template you can download here:
1. Define who you are
Let’s start with a simple inventory – write down some basic characteristics of who you are:
– Gender
– Age group
– Marital status
– Location you are from or where you live
– Occupation, what is that you do for a living
– Your education, etc
All these basic elements are easy to define, so first it will put you in action mode, will warm you up, and second, it is also important elements that we will use later in the process.
2. Think about your interests
The next step is to define what is exactly you are interested in. Write down 3 things you are interested in. Maybe it is healthy living or fitness, maybe numerology or sports, maybe books and personal development – be specific as possible.
Next think about celebrities, famous authors, speakers, or world leaders you are following and companies, brands, or communities that most resonates with you.
3. Think about your basic qualities
When you have defined your basic characteristics and your favorites, time to go a bit deeper and discover what elements define your own personality. Are you introvert or extravert, analytical or creative, chaotic or highly organized and focused? Do you love to be a lone wolf or are you a team player? What is your work ethic – are you a workaholic or love shortcuts?
4. Goals and values
When all basic and personality elements are in place, time to go even deeper and think about your goals and values.
Write down a list of goals and most importantly try to understand why it is important for you. There is a simple exercise called “5 whys”. You probably have heard about it but now it is time to run through every goal you have. In short, this exercise is what it is called about. You ask 5 times Why it is important to you in every step. First, you ask Why for your initial goal. When you got your answer ask Why again until you it moves you emotionally.
It even better if we have a friend who can help with this exercise. Make an agreement that whatever happens, she will continue to ask Why for the next 5min. As I mentioned before the goal is to attach emotion to your goal and find your true values.
5. Strenght, weaknesses
Now we have emotions attached to our goals and our core values are in place. The last step is to think through our strengths and weaknesses. There are different theories in the world that talk about how to prosper in life, but recently more and more successful people talk about a simple rule. Work on, master and perfect your strength and outsource, automate or eliminate the rest.
So, when we know this rule that let’s do our list of 5 things that we consider our strengths and 5 things that are our weaknesses.
6. Challenges
There is an old saying – In order to have bigger success, you have to solve bigger problems.
This is our last step in the review process. Think about your past, what challenges you have experienced and how you got over them. What was the step you were taken? This is the best way to discover that one problem you can help with for others.
Of course, there is also another way – you can make a list of the strength you defined in the previous step and google what problems you can solve with that.
In one or another way think about 5 challenges that later may be your mission to master and help others to solve.
7. Create your mission statement
Now is a time to put everything together. Print out and fill the template that you can get here, and make a short summary. Take into account all you have done so far – your challenges, strength, weaknesses, goals and values, your personal characteristics and qualities. Think about the audience you will serve based on your own age group, marital and family status, interests, and values. Try to put everything together in a simple statement.
Choose a challenge you can solve with your strength that correlates with your goals and values for an audience that has similar basic characteristics, personal qualities, and interests.
Make your mission statement simple and powerful by combining elements from your template.
Start with an “On a mission to..” or “I help..” and an action what is that you do, add an audience and desired outcome you will achieve.
“On a mission to /action/ for /audience/ by /skills/ to /desired result/.”
For example:
On a mission to challenge, and change the law for communities with barriers to preserve their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
On A Mission To Help Network Marketers Set Their Business On Fire Using Social Media
To be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline.
My Mission
When I took this exercise I found out that I’m good at motivating people, finding and presenting possible solutions. There were several challenges, I went through during my career in the corporate world as a middle manager including decision making, clarity, dealing with uncertainty, and changing environment. I was able to get promotions twice a year by setting goals and following my own success path and processes to end up in top management in the end.
Despite a successful career, I started to feel that there is something more for me out there. I went through this exercise and several others and decided to introduce a change in my life. Long story short, I was able to change my life and transferred myself out of the corporate world, and transit into entrepreneurship.
Today I help other people who are looking for a change in life to discover their way to go and follow that path by setting goals, create and follow processes that work, and be happy.
So my mission sounds like this:
On the mission to help 1000 people who are looking for a change in life to find and follow their own path. – Inspire Change In Life.
I challenge you to go through this exercise and create a mission statement that resonates with you. In order to help you with the process, I have a PDF template for you here. Just enter your favorite email address and in a minute I will send it to you.
When it is done share in a comment below and tell the world!
Looking forward to your powerful mission statements.
