Mission Statements

For years I have hated mission statements.  I have suffered through endless workshops developing mission statements for my school, for my church, for my grade.  The first time was interesting and kind of exciting.  Then the finished statement disappeared from everything except some notebook somewhere.  The second time I was skeptical but believed the person who said this time it would become the focus and driving force of our professional actions for the next few years.  It was challenging but still interesting to see how my values and priorities had evolved from the first time.  The finished statement was hung on a wall, used in slide shows and spotlighted on a website.  But if it was the driving force of our actions, we were stalled and going nowhere.  From then on I approached each new mission statement workshop with skepticism and eventually total cynicism.  It all seemed so pointless.  I had little desire to invest in something I had no chance of implementing.  

Then sometime last summer I got thinking about why I hated mission statements so much. I realized I hated the inaction that followed the work of creating one.  The idea of having a mission statement to focus and measure actions is a good concept IF it's used. The frustration is the lack of followup. So I decided to try something.  I began writing a personal mission statement.  I kept it secret for months and it went through quite a few revisions before I was happy with it.  Now I keep it inside my appointment book, inside my journal, on my computer desktop and a few other places where I spot it regularly.  I haven't shared it with anyone, in fact until now hardly anybody even knew I wrote one.  But I knew.  I read it.  Every day. I try [and usually succeed] to take a moment at the beginning and/or end of the day to read it over and consider how I'm measuring up.  

What has it accomplished? I don't think I am transformed, but I know I'm better.  I use it to measure priorities, shape decisions, weigh choices.   I  know I feel more satisfied at the end of each day with what I have done.  It's become a way to measure myself against MY standards, not someone else's, not the community's, not the world's ... MINE.  I am accountable to me.  I don't know if a personal mission statement will work for you or for anyone else. I do know it's worked for me. Maybe give it a shot?  Let me know....