In this episode, I talk about Creating Your Personal Mission Statement

In a previous episode, I mentioned about taking the time to create your own personal mission statement. Now in episode 128, I dive deep into the fundamentals of starting of what will become a lifelong process of making and sustaining a Personal Mission statement. Bring a notepad, a pen, and let’s work together to get you started on creating your very own personal mission statement.

And as always, I remind you to GO BEYOND THE GRIND & GO BEYOND THE HUSTLE BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO BE THE WALKING LEADER AND A LEADER THAT IS GREAT TO FOLLOW.

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Please plug in your headphones, sit back and enjoy this 16 minute podcast.

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Transcription:

As I mentioned in the previous episode, I talked about getting a personal mission statement. If you don’t have one, think about getting one or get one and so today what I want to do is; I want to dive into that. Let’s see what we can do about getting a personal mission statement. Now if you’ve never done one, it’s okay, it’s relatively easy. Just a couple of little things you need to remember and I’ll start dissecting it and we’ll get into it a little bit deeper.

For the most part, it’s easy to do and it’s something that does not have to be huge. You’ll be tempted to start off with something big but eventually you’ll fit it down to something nice, small, neat and compact. There should be no problem doing it the but you might ask yourself what is a personal mission statement?

Well, a personal mission statement defines who you are as a person and identifies your purpose whether that’s in the office or in life or with your family whatever it is it explains how you aim to pursue that purpose and why it matters to you so much author and career coach Dan Miller says a good mission statement should include three things your skills and abilities what you like to do your personality traits that’s how you operate your values who dreams and passions why you want to excel why you want to go beyond why you want to move further and farther than where you already are and that mission statement now before it full disclosure I think I went too far full disclosure I have one I’ve had one for the longest time for I don’t I mean I’m going on 14 – 15 years with one and and I’m surprised I didn’t have one prior to that now prior to that I know that organizations have mission statements organizations have vision statements but I never thought about actually creating one for myself that was until I I took the seven Habits of Highly Effective People training the long training it was awesome it was fantastic and in that training part of it is to go ahead and create a mission statement now earlier I said it could be short or it could be as long as you want and usually at the very beginning it’s going to be kind of long mine right now is down to about a page but I think well the last one I actually sat down and wrote but I need to review it we rewrite it rework it and I think I could probably get it down to half a page in the training the the we were told that uh that there can be some personal statements that are only five words long I’m sorry wow that’s ambitious that’s that’s all encompassing but if those five words are straightened to the point and don’t pull any punches then by all means those things are that’s fantastic so again getting back to Dan Miller author and career coach Dan Miller and what he says about the three things I think that need to be in a good mission statement your skills and abilities your personality traits your values dreams and passions and that’s in it should be about one to two sentence long and it’s say in simple terms exactly what you’re all about without any principles tacked on without any principles tacked on what is that what does that mean so we’ve all seen them we’ve all seen those police cop shows with a police officer and again not anything against the often that against anything not against the police officers anything bad but there’s some that just kind of step onto that soapbox and start well start giving their their two cents worth of what they see is as where your lack where they’ve not you but where they the accused is lacking principles and guidance and they start adding on that well that’s what I’m talking about without adding any of that that principle without adding any principles on to it just just strictly who you are now as I said your Misha stay pay can be as long as you want it to be it can be as short as it needs to be but whatever it is it has to inspire and motivate you and it has to act as your personal compass that just by reading and reading it instantly you’re bought we are brought back on track here you’re on track you you adjusted your course you’re now moving in the right direction and I’ve had that over the years and now guilty of just ignoring that sometimes or just letting it go and not really paying attention and but when I do open it I sit there and I reread it and it’s like yeah I I see where I went wrong I see where I went off course but I get myself focused so there’s times I’ve read it over the years but to sit there and consciously make adjustments I think now is the time so again you don’t have to be constantly refining it now why do you need a mission statement why that mission statement well first of all it’s written by you it’s intentionally written by you it helps you identify your goals and what it is and it’s going to take to accomplish them how you’re going to get there so you see you see this we’re at that point now it’s 2019 weird it’s a new year things are moving in the direction we want them to go but are we really getting there and how are we getting there so we need to not just write down our goals but we write a mission Satan statement to back up and support those goals to ensure that what we’re doing is everything we can be doing to get us to where we want to be so I’d like to use the example of the million dollars you know my goal is to have a million dollars in the bank well how am I going to get to the million dollars well I have to earn the first dollar and then the second and so on and so on but I also have to have them in the bank don’t be tempted to spend them so you see there we go so know your values know what you’re all about and define your purpose find who you are on the inside and put that down in writing now you’re going to take a lot of notes for all of this you’re going to definitely take a lot of notes so don’t be in a hurry to get this done and I know that this one simple podcast is not going to be the end-all be-all but I do hope it hope it serves as a beginning point if you don’t already have one so define your purpose write that down find your cool write that down write down who you are write down who you are as your core what you feel you are who you feel your be specific not just in this but everything else that you write down be very specific because again if you don’t fine-tune it laser focus you’re not going to get to where you want to be because you leave yourself with a lot of vagueness and being vague as definitely it’s like walking in a room with all the lights off for you’re not going to know where you’re going and you’re just going to make a bad turn after bad turn you’re going to bump in your knee into the furniture or your shin into the furniture or stepping on a lego barefoot yeah that does hurt now when you’re writing everything down be sure that you’re being truthful to yourself be truthful to yourself don’t lie to yourself because you’ll know it’s a lie and it’s like well why are you even bothering so be truthful tell your story tell what you want but do it in a manner that is well you don’t pull any punches against yourself that you’re not holding anything back against to you because again if you start doing that you’re going to keep doing it and you can’t even be truthful to yourself how are you going to accomplish any of the goals you want because it’s going to hurt and the truths going to sting and the truths going to be what the truth is the truth and if you don’t like the truth and don’t start but if you’re one of those that has to fight through it and must fight through it then guess what you’re going to have to fight through the truth the truth that you’re going to have to admit to yourself not anybody else I’m not asking you to share this with anybody this is for you and you alone so be true to yourself and when you’re being true to yourself you’re definitely going to inspire yourself you’re definitely going to take yourself to places you’ve never been and guess what that is a good thing because when you take yourself to places you’ve never been you’re inspiring yourself to take yourself even further to the next step and I’m not talking about physically going from point A to point B but in your mind once you break through the barrier of truth and you start being truthful to yourself you start accepting yourself you start believing yourself you start inspiring yourself and ultimately you motivate yourself and next thing you know you’re wanting more and more and more and you’re getting what you want so be inspirational to yourself be succinct keep it succinct keep it focused remain focus you’ve got to you can’t be too vague I talked about this earlier when it said about being specific straight to the point remain focused don’t lose focus don’t lose faith in yourself you can do this and that’s why it’s going to take time to write this out so you can sit there and write down on one piece of paper one thing and tear it off and get another sheet of paper and write something totally different but remain focus on what your intention is your intention is to do and believe in what you can to get to where you want to be where you feel you need to be so remain focused the next thing is to aim high aim high don’t aim low don’t name locus any anybody could say I’m going to read a book by the end of the year well yeah well those that can read can read a book by the end of the year by all means but if your goal is to be a constant learner that means you’re constantly reading books so look at it that way you’re going to be a lifelong learner there’s your aim and you’re aiming high because you’re aiming for the rest of your life to be a lifelong learner and what is that going to do that’s going to define your impact aiming high will define your impact why because when you go up you’re going to come back down and what’s going to be the impact well you’re going to be an inspiration to your children you’re going to be an inspiration to those that you lead those that follow you those that call you mentor you’re going to be that for them because again you’ve aimed high you’re going to get up to that point you’re going to be up there so you write that down this is who I want to be this is where I want to be and this is how I’m going to get it and these are my goals and this is the impact of those goals I’ll have a million dollars in the bank I can do whatever I want and spend time with my family because now I’ve got the financial resources to pay the bills to put food on the table and not have to worry about that yet see people think oh well yeah I’ll have a million bucks in a bank you know but yeah everyday life will be good no you still have to put food on a table you still have to pay the bills this way you’re just getting yourself ahead ask why at the end at the end you read it you’ve got everything in line you’ve got all your core you’ve got your specifics you you’ve got your inspiration you’ve got your motivation you got your goals ask yourself why ask yourself why an answer it right then in there don’t take time to ponder the answer and ask yourself why and answer it with the first thing that comes to mind be that person be that person that answers right away and guess what that answer will usually be the best answer and that answer it will usually be the one that’s going to get you from point A to point B so answer immediately don’t pull any punches answer truthfully aim high with your goals aim high with what you want to accomplish define your impact know what’s going to happen on the other end once you’ve achieved it remain focused inspire and motivate yourself be true to yourself and be specific define your purpose find your core work hard to get it under control but all the while make sure you’re writing it down write it down take notes make sure that you know that you’ve answered all the questions that you’ve been truthful to yourself and then start packaging it and how do you package it well it might sound a little morbid but it might be something to think about and it could be it could be a great way to look at things is write your own obituary based on all the information that you just wrote down yeah write your own epitaph write your own obituary begin with the end in mind backward planning meaning you’ve accomplished everything how are you going to get there based on everything you’ve provided to yourself everything you’ve been written down all the notes you’ve taken all the paragraphs or words you’ve written down about you about these questions about your core about your purpose put it all together write it backwards and then once you’ve got that go forward and redefine it write it out and now you have a mission statement remember the first paragraph is usually called the executive statement that’s usually a summary of everything that you’re about to introduce so don’t be embellish a little bit you know again you’re the one it’s going to read it because you still have to inspire yourself but when you’re in there stay true to yourself the blood and the guts of that missions of your personal mission statement has to inspire you so don’t forget to keep working at it even after you think you’re done because you’re never truly going to be done because you are still a work in progress so your personal mission statement is one that’s going to have multiple versions throughout the rest of your life but keep at it keep working at it keep updating it keep refining it because again as you achieve one goal what’s next what’s next so think about it this time in six months it’ll be sometime around what October are close to October it’ll be the fall getting ready to go into the holidays maybe revisit your mission statement and so on and so on well folks there we go there we go it’s kind of in a nutshell like I said it’s not going to be the end-all be-all but I hope it’s a start and I hope it’s a start for you and I definitely want to hear from you.

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