Highly effective people are goal-oriented. They understand where they are going, and why. To become a goal-oriented person, you must first have a strong foundation on which you build your goals. So what does that foundation look like, and how do you make one?
In 1989, Dr. Steven Covey introduced millions of readers to the concept of a personal mission statement in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Dr. Covey explained that we derive this unique personal statement from an honest understanding of what motivates us, and offers a clear vision of where we want to be and why. This will be your foundation.
The following article will guide you through the steps of writing your own mission statement.
Step1: Know Yourself (Principles and Values)
A personal mission statement is designed to help you set goals that will actually drive change in your life; to do that, you must first understand what drives you. These are called your principles and values.
These principles and values are fundamental truths about ourselves; they are the fabric of who we are, whether we are consciously aware of them or not.
Principles are…
- woven into the fabric of society. They often concern human behaviour and govern interactions between people.
- permanent and unchanging, such as ‘fairness’, ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’.
Values are…
- beliefs and opinions that people hold regarding specific issues or ideas.
- an expression of our individual beliefs and opinions, and often help us accomplish objectives based on our current circumstances.
- representative of the current but potentially alterable goals that we have in our professional and personal lives.
- internal, subjective and can change over time, such as ‘prioritize schoolwork over hobbies’, ‘be at work 15 minutes early’ or ‘don’t cut people off in traffic’.
Consciously defining principles and values is a deep-thinking exercise, and you may experience internal struggles as you discover that you are not motivated by what you thought you were.
Steven Covey famously rode his bike to a remote spot with a pencil and a pad of paper and spent the full day defining his own.
This is not excessive behavior; this is foundational work — you have to take your time.
For the complete guide on defining your Values and Principles, click here.
Step 2: Renounce Societal Expectations
The second step is to un-couple yourself from other peoples’ ideas of success, and become comfortable with that.
Take a minute and try this exercise:
- On a sheet of paper, write down the goals you have in one column, and your values in another.
- Draw lines from your goals to the values that they support.
How did that go? Did you find that your goals support your values?
If you were able to link them all together without forcing or over-rationalizing, great! However, if you are like me the first time that I tried to do a similar exercise, you may find that they don’t all match.
I’ll share with you an example from my life where I thought I wanted something but discovered that I actually don’t:
I have a close friend who always has very nice, expensive cars. Whenever I’m a passenger in his car, I think “wow, this is great. One day, I’ve got to consider getting something like this.”
However, when I consult my principles and values, I am reminded that even if I become a millionaire, I will never own a $50k car. This is because, if I was ever faced with a decision of how to spend $50k, it would not be on a car.
I know this, because I know my principles and my values, and that allows me to be completely satisfied with my cheap hatch-back.
I shared this example because owning a nice car is a classic example of a goal that many people have, but that may not properly reflect what they actually value.
The purpose of this article is not to tell you that it’s unilaterally wrong to accumulate wealth and exude opulence. In fact, these may actually be the right goals for you. I just want you to consider that many of the ‘goals’ we often have are being nudged into our minds by external sources such as advertisements, entertainers, influencers, friends and parents.
One of the hardest things with setting good goals is rejecting other peoples’ views of success. Alot of ‘goals’ are nudged into our minds by ads, entertainers, influencers and the people closest to us. The only real #success is HAPPINESS, so focus on what will make you happy 😀👍
— Chris (@ChrisjBergen) February 21, 2020
Step 3: Write Your Personal Mission Statement
A great personal mission statement will have these five elements:
- Personal
- Positive
- Present-Tense
- Visual
- Emotional
If you are like me, then you might like to see some good examples to get you started. So, here are some examples from Stephanie Vozza’s article ‘Personal Mission Statements of 5 Famous CEO’s’ published on Fast Company:
“To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make significant difference.” Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup Company
“To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” Oprah Winfrey, Founder of The Oprah Winfrey Network
“To have fun in my journey through life and learn from my mistakes.” Sir Richard Branson, Founder of The Virgin Group
“To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of women around the world.” Amanda Steinberg, Founder of DAILYWORTH.COM
Mission statements can also be made for any type of organization.
- Organizational mission statements should be developed by everyone in the organization. If there is no involvement in the process, there will be no commitment to the statement.
- An organization may have an all-encompassing mission statement, and each location, or even each team, may have their own. However, they should all dovetail with each other.
- The reward system must complement and strengthen the stated value systems.
Step 4: Revisit Your Goals
Throughout your life, you are going to achieve goals, change goals, and set new ones. But your principles won’t change (though your interpretation may evolve), and your values are always going to be linked to your principles.
Therefore, a good starting point and accountability measure to complete before defining your goals is to write your own personal mission statement. This statement will help you focus on what you want to be (character) and do (contributions and achievements).
Since you are currently reading an article on how to write a personal mission statement, I’ll bet you’ve already given thought to your goals. Therefore, my recommendation to you would be to revisit those goals after you’ve written your mission statement. Try the linking exercise from step 2 again and make sure that all of your goals are linked to your values.
Final Thoughts
- What did you learn from the goal-linking exercise? Did you affirm or refute any of your current goals?
- Have you written a personal mission statement? If so, are you willing to share it with us?
- Do you have any advice on how to write a great personal mission statement?
Thanks for Reading!
One response to “Great Leaders Have Great Mission Statements. Here are 4 Steps to Write Yours”
TY for this post, it is very useful to me! Much better written than anything else out there.