By this time, I am sure most of us are tired of snow. It is my favorite analogy for our journey through life, so please stay with me on this visual. Imagine a clean snowfield after a fresh snowfall. If you wanted to make a straight line across it, would you look at your feet as you cross or find a tree on the other side of the field? The tree solidly planted would give you the best chance for success. The same thing holds true for a successful journey through life. A life that brings you more of what you desire to accomplish, experience, and have. Most people spend their life looking at their feet as they move through life, so focused on what is right in front of them. They prioritize tasks that are screaming the loudest over tasks that are more important. It is a vicious cycle because without understanding what is most important to us, we continue to choose tasks that steal our time and energy, putting our long-term dreams on hold. Creating a Personal Mission Statement will clarify what you most want in life.
Plan your work and work your plan- a good friend of mine shared this old adage with me. It seemed easy at first. I struggled with it for years until I realized how many habits I was trying to change. By breaking it down into smaller chunks (like properly chewing food so you don't choke) allowed me to make progress. When I accomplished small goals, I would celebrate, and that would encourage me to take on the next one.
I started with figuring what I valued most. The main outcome of a well-crafted Personal Mission Statement is a clear statement of where you want to end up in a specific point in time. I was introduced to this process by Steven Covey in his book, "7 Habits for Highly Effective People". There is quite an investment of quiet reflective time in completing your own specific Personal Mission Statement. This is a big reason that I hold my Leadership Retreats in remote locations with small groups of Leaders. Check out my next 2021 Retreat under Training on my website at http://www.getlifeinbalance.com!
I finalized my Personal Mission Statement during a workshop in Safety Harbor Florida in 1994. From there I created long-term personal and professional goals with specific strategies on how to get there. When I got home, I excitedly shared my epiphany with my wife and son. It involved having my own Leadership development company located in Colorado. Even though they enjoyed our vacations to Rocky Mountain National Park as much as I did, they were not ready to leave Michigan at that time. My wife's business was entrenched in West Michigan, and my son had friends and a school he loved. Because we are committed to others on our journey, it is important to collaborate in this decision-making process. This was especially true for me since my Personal Mission Statement is:
To provide an environment to promote my family’s happiness and health.
We added Stephan and Minnie's long-term goals to the vision and extended the time frame to 10 years in the future. As we followed the blueprint for our future new developments and obstacles appeared on our path. Some were not important enough to deter our journey and others we absolutely needed to add to the equation. Those we added were: our daughter's wishes (she was 1 yr. old when we started), our want to be close to Family (all Michiganders), and the financial stability to hang out our own shingle. 20 years after we set the plan, my wife and I moved to Colorado, succeeding in making our dreams a reality. Our son moved out to Colorado 7 years earlier, creating his own personal path.
The benefits of creating a Personal Mission Statement are not just realized once your journey ends. By taking it and using my Goal Setting Recipe, you have a specific blueprint that creates clarity for your entire journey. The PMS values created a guidepost in making decisions on where I spent my time. I looked at the goals I wanted to accomplish that supported those values. Each goal is supported by a strategy and tasks I completed every week that lead to that end result. Regular evaluations kept me on the path and allowed me to evaluate set priorities with current needs.
Take control of your day by focusing on what's important, not just what is screaming the loudest. If you say yes to a task not on your list, it better be worth it. Will it move you away from or toward your long-term goal?
"Being professionally efficient means you get more done at work. Being efficient in life means you get more of what you want out of life".
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