A mission statement is a written down statement of your “unique purpose” (talents/gifts) and “reason for being” (whom you came here to serve) that is key to finding your true path in life (resolving the Creative Tension Zone). 

Having a mission statement is important because it helps you get clear on when to say “Yes” and when to say “No”.  Once you have your mission statement then when you have a choice to make you can ask yourself, “Will this bring me closer to achieving my mission or further from it?”  If it doesn’t bring you closer to your mission then you’ll learn how to say “NO” to things that may have previously been distracting you.

Did you know that during World War II, if an unidentified soldier appeared suddenly in the dark and was unable to state his mission that he would automatically be shot without question.  That may seem harsh, but those times were a life and death situation.

In some ways, your not having a mission statement is the difference between life and death.  Remember the proverb: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  Are you just floating along in your life with no “burning mission” to fulfill?  If you don’t know your mission (your purpose for being) then you are most likely living a “default” life.

Stephen Covey, in his well-known book, “First Things First“, explains what it’s like to live a default life:

“If our vision is limited — if it doesn’t extend beyond the Friday night ball game or the next TV show — we tend to make choices based on what’s right in front of us.  We react to what’s urgent, the impulse of the moment, our feelings or moods, our limited awareness of our options, other people’s priorities.  We vacillate and fluctuate.”

I know from experience what it’s like to “vacillate” and “fluctuate” as I did a lot of that for many years.  Then I came upon 2 books that really changed my life back in the 1990’s and those books were:

• The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life by Laurie Beth Jones
• How to Find Your Mission in Life by Richard Bolles

These 2 books transformed my life and in many ways gave me back my life.  At the time I was working in the legal field and was miserable; I had no purpose, no direction, no goals, and no burning desire.  I just didn’t feel fulfilled. 

When I read the book, “How to Find Your Mission in Life” by Richard Bolles there was one question in that book that got me back in touch with my “gift” and that question was:

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO DO THAT YOU LOSE ALL SENSE OF TIME?

When I read that question, the only thing I could think of was “writing“…I LOVED to write.  At the time, however, I wasn’t doing any writing, but inside I knew that as a kid when I would sit down to write, 5 hours would seem like 5 minutes.  So I knew that writing was part of my gifts, talents and purpose.

Several months later, I read Laurie Beth Jones book, “The Path:  Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life” and I wrote the following Mission Statement:

“My mission is to inspire, motivate and educate others to believe in themselves and to find their true purpose in life.”

Once I had my mission statement in hand then I began to say “NO” to many things that I knew would not bring me closer to my mission.  I gained more clarity, more direction, more purpose and more fulfillment day by day.

A decade plus since writing that mission statement, I am living my dreams.  I write almost every day for myself and for clients.  I write blogs, eBooks, eCourses, Articles, Sales Pages, Website Content and I absolutely LOVE what I do.  I know I am fulfilling my mission as I have many clients and students who tell me that I “inspire” and “motivate” them to follow their dreams and to find their true purpose in life!

Now that you know what a mission statement is, next week’s blog post will be about Creating your own Mission Statement.  In the meantime, I highly recommend you read the 2 books I mentioned above if you don’t have a written down Mission Statement.

Here are a few Examples of Mission Statements from “The Path”:

• My mission is to enliven, encourage and reinpsire the love of music for children in public schools.
• My mission is to create, nurture, and maintain an environment of growth, challenge, and unlimited potential for all those around me.
• My Personal Mission is to recognize, promote, and inspire divine connection in myself and others. (*This is Laurie Beth Jones’ mission statement and the way she lives out that mission is by writing, speaking and creating opportunities for others to get clear about who they are, what they were created to do, and how to live their highest good in work, life, and relationships.)

I’ll end with a quote from author Laurie Beth Jones:

 “A personal mission statement acts as both a harness and a sword–harnessing you to what is true about your life and cutting away all that is false.”