Your Personal Mission & Vision

You have spent a lot of time figuring out your organization’s mission and vision.  How about your personal mission and vision?

There are a lot of different ways to go about writing up your personal mission statement.  Here are some questions to get started on clarifying your personal mission:

“What do you want your personal legacy to be?”

“What are you leaving behind?”

“What contributions do you want to make to others and to the world?  

Once you write up your mission then you can create a vision.  My favorite question is:

“What would you want your life to be like if you could have it any way you wanted it?”

When I went through this exercise, I first identified the most important “domains” of my life – those aspects that are most important to me.  For example, some of those included Spiritual Life, Work Life, Fun, Family & Friends, Health, etc.  And I then went on to describe what those aspects of my life would look like if I could have it any way I wanted it.

What should you do with this once you have it all done?

There are lots of valuable ways to use your mission & vision.  I briefly review my personal mission most every morning when I do my prayers & meditations.  I feel like it gives me focus for the day.

No surprise – I use my vision to create five year goals for myself.  Then I use those to set annual goals.  I review the vision and goals every week as I make my action plan for the week.  Too much?  It works for me!  You can devise your own system. 

The main value is taking some time to get clear on “Why Am I Here?” & “Where Am I Going?” and then working along at “How Am I Going to Get There?”  As you work on that last part, I recommend following the advice in my article The Power of Goals.  Good luck to you on your path to make a personal Mission Impact! 

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.