Having decided the next step in my goal development is to develop a personal mission statement I have been doing some research. Just about everything I’ve read suggests there are many benefits to developing a mission statement, but the key ones are greater self knowledge and improved decision making, so obviously the more effort I put into developing the mission statement the greater results I will see.
During my research I have identified several blog posts that appear to be useful and that I am intending to revisit to help me complete this stage of my goal identification exercise.
- This is my mission statement
- What’s the difference between mission and vision?
- Detailing my mission statement into guidelines and goals
- Should you write a personal mission statement?
- 15 questions to discover your personal mission
- how to write your own personal mission statement
- Writing a personal mission statement
I have also seen many recommendations for 7 habits of highly effective people so I will move this up my list of books to reread, as well as How to make your dreams come true .
Hi Kate, I will be doing a series of posts on the 7 Habits over the next seven weeks (on Mondays). Stay tuned, or save them in your feedreader until you are ready.
Stephen,
I’ll be looking out for your series. I read the book over five years and my only recollection is how longwinded I found it. I’m happy to give it another go though.
The Seven habits is definitely better on the second read. It took me about 2 years to year it the first time, one day the second. I only wish I’d read it the second time sooner!
Benjamin,
You have made me feel more positive about giving it a second read and possibly sooner than I had expected.
I don’t go with this mission staement idea – if you need to write down your lifes vision to help you remember it then it can’t be that much of a vision. You know deep inside what you want to do / be / achieve – just get on and do it NOW.
Hi Rob! If that works for you, then that is great. My longest experience with mission statements is in the work context. Of the businesses I have worked for with mission statements, 100% succeeded and are still going. Of those without, 80% failed. that might be correlation rather than cause, but is interesting.
On the personal mission statement front, perhaps not everyone needs one, but I certainly find it helpful as a way of being clear about what I would like to achieve and cutting out the noise that stops me getting there, or as a way of realising my mission has changed (for example, after children came into my life). Things are rarely clear until you right them down, and once you’ve written them down, you can see if they change over time. No matter how much of a vision someone else judges it to be or not, it is your mission.
What’s your mission Rob?
Hello Rob,
You are right that I have a good idea of what my life’s vision is. When I talk about developing my vision it is working out the details, what does it actually mean. Once I have that, I will write it out and put it in places so I can’t hide from where I really want to go.
Benjamin,
Interesting stats on businesses with and without visions. I spent a lot of time researching visions for businesses a few years ago and I think it is that knowledge that is encouraging me to develop my own.
I believe in the power of writing and agree with you that by writing my mission will help me move towards it.
[…] wrote an interesting post last week about personal mission statements at Blog to Discovery, which has generated quite a comment […]
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[…] this post for more info. I’d also like to give a shout-out to Kate at Blog to Discovery for getting this started! Thanks, I am looking forward to sharing these with […]
[…] Most companies have a vision and mission statement, which speak to the purpose and path of the business. Should individuals have a personal mission statement? As it turns out, it is a little controversial, as Kate found when developing her mission statement. […]
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