Categories: Manifesto

Four Easy Ways to Write a Personal Mission Statement

Have you ever thought about what your personal mission statement would look like? Would it describe a big result you want to produce? Or would it define who you want to become? Or the great life you want to live?

Writing a personal mission statement can give your life direction. It’s like a roadmap for living. And this makes it easier to make the right moves around your important decisions.

But to get this right, you must avoid the big mistake many people make when creating their mission statement. Often people aren’t clear on what they’re writing and they get confused about whether it’s a mission, a vision, a purpose, or a set of values. This makes it hard to create something that inspires you.

The good news is that in this post, I’ll show you a simple way to create each one. That’s four different ways to create a Personal Mission Statement.

How to Craft a Purpose Statement

A Purpose Statement is all about why you do what you do. In other words, what motivates you or drives you?

For me, it was staring me in my face – I’m all about creating things. And it follows that my purpose is to create new worlds. Writing my books and creating these videos are expressions of that.

To reveal your purpose, answer these three questions.

Who – who do you want to become? Is it…Parent, leader, star, friend, supporter…
What – what impact do you want to have? Is it… Pick an issue – climate change, business, local community, family, education
Strengths – And what are your strengths? If you’re not sure, do a strengths profile test. It might point you to the type of projects you like working on and the best way you can contribute.

Once you’ve explored this, refine it into a single purpose statement.

How to Write a Vision Statement

A Vision Statement is all about the direction you want to head.

The key question to ask is: What does the world look like when you’ve completed your mission?

For example, Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech (full transcript here) describes his vision of how the world will look when racial equality is reached. For example:

“We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.”
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Read this post to create your Personal Vision Statement in 4 simple steps.

How to Write a Mission Statement

A Mission Statement is a specific and measurable outcome that you want to achieve.

To make this work you have to choose a domain or area of your life that you are focusing on. For instance, career, family or YouTube videos. Then explore results that would tell you that you’ve achieved the level of quality that you’re looking to.

For example, I have a mission to achieve one million views on my YouTube videos. This is a measure of the impact I want to have by sharing my ideas.

The two most powerful ways to write a manifesto.

How to Define Your Core Values

And now to perhaps the easiest one of all, your core values.

To define your values pick the qualities that represent you when you are at your best. This might be now or who you aspire to become in the future.

Use the graphic below (from my book Weekly Done) to walk through the simple three-step process for defining your core values.

The third step is vital for you to personalise your values. Once you have picked 3-5 core values then write down YOUR personal definition of each one. This is important – a lot of people may have ‘integrity’ as a value, but it can mean so many different things. You have to define it your way.