Mission/Vision Plan

Creating a Personal Mission/Vision Plan

Step 1: Values Clarification

Determine what you value and write clarifying statements about yourself and those values.  What do you most value?  Consider:  Authenticity, Beauty, Career, Compassion, Courage, Education, Fitness, Gratitude, Humor, Love, Loyalty, Patience, Respect, Spirituality, Teamwork, etc.

An alternative approach is to consider personality characteristics that you like about yourself and write clarifying statements regarding these.  Consider:  Teachability, Creativity, Persistence, Friendliness, Sense of Humor, etc.

Step 2: Identify and Define Your Roles

Most of us have several areas of focus in our lives.  A role is a key relationship, responsibility or contribution.  List your roles and key people associated with each role.  Then write a clarifying statement that defines your ideal performance in that role.

Role Examples:

Child of God, Head of Household, Wife/Husband, Father/Mother, Daughter/Son, Employee/Employer, Athlete, etc. 

Key People:  Family, friends, church, co-workers, community. 

  

Step 3: Starting Point Questions

Think about your life's purpose while answering these two questions:

What one thing could you accomplish in your professional life that would have the most positive impact?

What one thing could you accomplish in your personal life that would have the most positive impact?

  

Step 4: Be, Do, Have

List attributes that describe the person you want to be (e.g. compassionate, hard working, humorous, responsible, etc):

Examples from my list: True, honest, Spirit led, content, Trustworthy, Dedicated, Disciplined, Service minded

List all the things you would like to do (e.g. travel, schooling, community service, mission trip, help at a shelter, etc):

Personal Examples:  I listed issues related to my marriage, role as father and athlete, career development and realization of my God given purpose.

List all the things you would like to have in your lifetime:

Examples: A great marriage; Closeness with my children; To live debt free; Good friends; Healthy body, mind, spirit; A close, intimate relationship with my Lord such that every day is directed by Him.

Step 5: Tribute Statements

Imagine your 80th birthday.  People from every walk of your life have gathered to celebrate with you and pay tribute to you.  What would you like them to say?  How would you like to be remembered?

Write a tribute statement you would like to receive from 5 or 6 people in different areas of the life you've imagined.

Step 6: Evaluation Questions

To help gain further insight, answer the following:

What have been some of your greatest moments of happiness and fulfillment?

 

What activities do you most enjoy and find most fulfilling in your professional life?

 

What are the activities of most worth in your personal life?

 

What talents and capacities do you have or want to have?

How can you best contribute to your community or the world?

 

Step 7: Personal Mission statement

What do you want your life story to be about?  To what have you, or do you wish to, devote your time and talents?  If you could live without concern for just paying the bills, what would that look like?

Considering all of the previous information, write your personal mission statement.  It can be a paragraph, a set of bullet points, or a single sentence.  Just be sure it expresses your personal mission/vision.  It should be easily remembered and something you can keep in front of you as a regular reminder.

 

Finally - Goal Planning

To bring the Mission/Vision statement to life, we need to set attainable goals to move us toward it.  If we set actionable, measureable goals and then work toward completing them, we will move toward living our Mission/Vision.  If this is created with our role as Child of God in the fore, we should then be acting in God's will for our lives.  Without such a disciplined approach, the mission statement is simply a nice set of ideals and we may find ourselves spending the year being acted upon by our circumstances instead of the other way around.

To effectively set goals, do the following:

List each Role previously defined.  Follow that with a Goal(s) that you will establish and a date you will aim to achieve it.  Then list the smaller steps necessary, and a deadline for each of these.  When you are done you will have your set of goals for the year.  As you accomplish these goals you can be sure that each one accomplished is moving you effectively toward realizing your personal Mission/Vision!

May God be with you and Bless you.

Press On Friends!