Personal Mission Statement: A New Kind of Resolution

By Megan Martin

The New Year is a time for redefining ourselves, revamping our images and refocusing our goals. While many of us make a list of resolutions that we may or may not keep, an even better way to encourage self-improvement is by creating a personal mission statement.

Most of us hear the term “mission statement” and think of large businesses or other organizations. But mission statements can be powerful tools for anyone, not just business leaders. Like company mission statements, personal statements can help job-seekers and others identify their most cherished values and beliefs, allowing them to stay on track with their goals.

According to Randall S. Hansen, PhD and author of the Quintessential Careers article, The Five-Step Plan for Creating Personal Mission Statements, “Writing a personal mission statement offers the opportunity to establish what's important and perhaps make a decision to stick to it before we even start a career. Or it enables us to chart a new course when we're at a career crossroads.”

If you’ve never considered writing a personal mission statement, it could be the best New Year’s resolution you’ve ever made.

Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Take Stock of Successes
Make a list of the greatest successes you’ve had in the past several years. Focus on the successes that have been most fulfilling to you. Keep in mind that your list does not have to focus solely on work: include shining moments you’ve experienced in your relationships, your community, your career, your volunteer positions, or even your hobbies.

From your list, choose at least three items and write about why each success was so fulfilling to you. If you find common connections or themes between one or more items in your list, try to articulate this theme. For example, do your successes involve helping others? Learning new things? Or something else?

Defining what success means to you is one of the most important parts of creating a personal mission statement.

Reevaluate Your Values
In order to create a strong personal mission statement, it’s crucial to have an understanding of what you value most and how it defines you.

Hansen recommends: “Develop a list of attributes that you believe identify who you are and what your priorities are.”

Choose the attributes that you value most—whether it’s your professionalism, your creativity, your compassionate nature, your achievements or something else. Make the list as long as you like and then narrow it to five or six values that you find most important. If possible, narrow your list again to one value that drives or influences you most.

When Oberon recently revised its value statement, it focused on six values that were most important to our organization: passion, connecting people, professionalism, creating positive energy, self-awareness/intuition, and achievement.

Consider Your Potential Contributions
Now that you’ve thought about what success means to you and what you value, it’s time to start moving toward how you can use these beliefs to help you move toward your career and other goals.

Based on what you’ve come up with so far, think about how you could impact your surroundings in a way that is most satisfying to you. What are some ways in which you could best impact your family, friends, community, employer, or the world while keeping in line with your beliefs? Anything goes—whether it involves moving to another country, starting a new business or finding new ways to bring your family closer together. Make the longest list you can; then, consider which of these contributions are most inspiring to you and why.

Create New Goals
Review all of your lists again. Take notice of themes that appear repeatedly. Use these lists to make a new list of the most important goals you have for yourself—again, consider family, career and personal growth. What have these exercises told you about your priorities in life? What is most important to you? What do you feel you must you do before you die? How do you want to approach each day differently than you ever have before?

Write Your Mission Statement
In his Training and Development article, Your Personal Mission Statement: A Foundation For Your Future, George Morrissey notes, “The process of developing a mission statement is far more important than the product. In other words, the thinking, discussion, evaluation, modification, and reflection that take place during this development effort represent the primary value that comes from your mission statement.”

Still, it’s important to have a well-crafted statement that you can refer to on a daily basis to help keep you on track with your goals. Dr. Susan Barnett of the Academic and Career Engagement program at Northwestern State University of Louisiana recommends the following in crafting your mission statement:

• Keep the statement brief—a statement that is just 3 to 5 sentences can be effective.
• Focus on who you want to become as a person. Include the specific positive qualities, behaviors and actions that will help you reach these goals.
• Keep positive—focus on who you want to become, not who you don’t.
• Be emotional—you’ll stay focused and energized if your statement is passionate and inspiring.
• Remember that your mission statement is a work in progress—you can change and modify it as you continue to change and reshape your life.

When Oberon recently revised our mission, it came down to four words: “Connecting People, Evolving Business.” A simple, meaningful phrase that you can recite throughout your day can be just as effective (if not more effective) than a two-page document.

Stay on Track
Once you’ve penned your mission, review it as often as possible. Try to take at least one action each day that helps you fulfill your personal mission. Morrisey recommends posting the mission statement wherever you can to keep yourself connected: in a frame on the wall, on your business card or anywhere else you can imagine.

“Keeping the mission statement visible and referring to it periodically help it become a living document that can increasingly influence your thinking, your planning, and your operating decisions,” he says.

Share your mission with friends and colleagues and ask them to help you stay on track.

The New Year is the perfect time to create a new, improved and more satisfied you. Remember the sooner you get started on your mission, the sooner you can begin to change yourself for the better.

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