Another Way of Approaching Your Personal Mission Statement

I’ve heard feedback from a few of our readers that trying to think about their mission statement is so overwhelming, they just can’t even begin.

Today, I’m going to talk about another way of approaching your personal mission, I trust it will help! Last year I attended a retirement party for a colleague of my wife. At it, he explained his personal mission, and how he created it. As we were listening, you could readily see how it had shaped his very successful career, and helped make him the remarkable man he is today.

You see, at the beginning of his career, someone gave him some great advice. We’ve probably all heard before that to get a clear vision of your life, imagine what people would say at your funeral. While this approach is effective, the advice he received from a friend was to imagine what he would want his friends and colleagues to say about him at his retirement party.

By picturing your retirement party instead, you can imagine what people would say when they weren’t dealing with grief, when their hearts were light, and when you were sitting in the same room listening to them. You can sit and think about what would make you feel good, and make you feel like you had accomplished what you set out to do, by figuring out what you would like to hear others say about you.

So, what would you retirement party be like? Who would be there to present? What would you have achieved so far in your life? What would you most want to hear being said about you? What kind of person would you like to be described as?

Take some time in the next few days to sit down and really think this over. Picture how your party would look. Write down all the key points that you would like people to be saying about you. When you’ve gotten a full picture, take those notes and turn them into a personal mission statement that you can easily remember.

The man in this story did something else amazing that night at his retirement party. During his speech, he pulled out an old, crumbled piece of paper. He read to us what he had written on it those many years ago. His personal mission statement. I have to tell you, I was amazed as I listened to it – the things he had written down and identified as being important, he had achieved.

Now ask yourself – is that the path you’re on right now? Is what you do each and every day in line with what you hope to achieve by the time you retire? Take your mission statement, use it to set your goals, and start changing your life today. You have the power to become exactly who you want to be.