Write a Personal Manifesto – Seven Ways to be Inspired

What’s the best way to write a personal manifesto?

I’ve been collecting and studying thousands of manifestos over the past ten years to come up with the best seven ways that you can write a Personal Manifesto.

But which one is the best one for you? And why did Life of Riza only score two for her personal manifesto when Benjamin Franklin scored five?

Today I’ll share the seven types with seven popular examples so you know what they are. Then I’ll give each one a rating to help you choose which one is best for you.

1 Define Your Core Values

Benjamin Franklin has his likeness on the $100 bill in the US. He’s probably most famous for flying a kite in a thunderstorm as an experiment to understand electricity.

Franklin also wrote a personal manifesto. It consisted of 13 values or virtues. Ben felt that he was lacking in certain qualities. And he came up with 13 that he wanted to practice as habits.

He chose 13 because 13 blocks of 4 weeks make up an entire year.

Creating your values is a great way to write a personal manifesto because it’s probably the easiest way to do it. Plus, when you have your core values it’s much easier to create the other forms of personal manifestos on this list.

But don’t pick 13 as Franklin did. Instead, I recommend you only pick 3-5 values to keep you focused.

2 Create A List Manifesto

If you had to describe what a manifesto looks like, then it often looks like a list of words and phrases.

Rob Cressy created a great blog post on how he wrote his personal manifesto. It’s worth reading because it’s very thorough about the steps he took to write his manifesto.

Rob has created a list-style manifesto – a mix of mantras, quotes and I am statements. For example, Asking is a gift, Be the example, Create every day.

This is a great way to write a personal manifesto. But, like my comment about Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues, when you have too many phrases, you lose the impact you might have if you have only a handful. I’d start with a big list like this, then prune it down to 3-5 to focus your intentions.

3 Create a Personal Mission

Another popular way to write a personal manifesto is to create a mission. A mission statement is a goal that you want to achieve.

Chris Do at The Futur has a mission to: Teach one billion people how to make a living, doing what they love (without losing their soul). #1BminusOne project is an ambitious undertaking to change the way we teach and learn. To make education equitable for students and teachers!

To create a personal manifesto like Chris Do’s mission, it needs to be measurable.

Chris has a counter here measuring his progress toward his goal. He currently has helped over 32,000 people.

To define your mission spend some time thinking about the results you want to produce and how you can measure your impact.

One more thing… Chris’s goal is a BHAG – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Some people prefer a big mission, others prefer modest goals – choose what works best for you.

4 Catch Your Motto or Mantra

And here’s a personal manifesto from one of my favourite creators on YouTube, Kariza Santos (Life of Riza): Say Yes now, figure it out later.

It’s a motto or mantra and it can become a theme or mindset for you in your life.

I do love the power of a motto, but it can be a tough thing to create because you can spend a lot of time looking for the right one – especially if you’re trying to create this from scratch.

An easier approach is to catch a motto or mantra when you say it or when you hear someone else say it. One way to achieve this is to journal and catch your thoughts that way or collect quotes and sayings from other people in Evernote or something similar.

5 Write a Vision Statement

In 1964, Nelson Mandela was on trial (The Rivonia Trial) with 14 other men for conspiring to overthrow the state.

In his closing statement to the court, Mandela said this from the dock: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

This was Mandela’s vision for the future of South Africa (and the world). It’s a description of the world he wanted to live in.

To create your Vision Statement, describe how things will look when you have fulfilled your mission.

6 Write A Worldview Manifesto

Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech is a classic vision statement. It describes the world he wants to see.

But it also goes one step further. It describes a worldview.

A vision statement is a short description of the world you want to see.

A worldview is a more detailed version. It also includes beliefs, values and a clear context.

In King’s example, it’s not just ‘this is what we want’ but also ‘this is what we don’t want’ plus ‘this is what we must overcome.

A vision statement is like a 2D plan for a house whereas a worldview is the full 3D finished building.

7 Create a Purpose Statement

Oprah Winfrey’s Purpose Statement is: ”To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.”

Coming up with a short sharp Purpose Statement can be harder than it looks because it can take a lot of personal reflection and editing over time.

One way to shortcut this is to start by defining a set of values. Then if you have a dominant one you can build a purpose statement around this.

This is what worked for me. My number one value is to create. And it follows that I was able to turn this into the Purpose Statement ‘to create new worlds’. That’s what I do ‘I create’. And ‘new worlds’ are what I create by sharing my ideas.

If you want me to help you to write your personal manifesto then check out the link for my coaching services in the description below.

Personal Manifesto Ratings

Now for the big question. I’ve shared seven different ways to write a personal manifesto. But, which one is best? Here are the pros and cons of each one. Note: I’m not rating the person or the example I’ve shared, I’m rating the type of personal manifesto. Each one was rated based on the power it gives you and the ease of creating it. The more stars the better.

• Motto – this can be powerful but it’s so much harder to create.
• List = easy to create, but having too many on your list dilutes their power.
• Worldview = a lot more work to create and probably overkill for a personal manifesto – much better suited to a community change project.
• Purpose = Having a clear purpose can be a powerful force in your life but again it’s harder to create a single focus.
• Mission = A mission is relatively easy to create you just need to quantify a result in an area of your life and it can be very powerful to focus your attention.
• Vision = A vision statement is easy to create, and powerful as a direction rather than being locked into a specific result.
• Values = Values are the easiest to create, they’re powerful in their own right but they also become a great launchpad to create any of the other types of personal manifestos. They’re the best choice.

More on Writing a Personal Manifesto

If you want more on writing a personal manifesto, read one of these posts next.

• How to write a Personal Manifesto in five steps
• Write a Manifesto Four Ways [The Four Types of Manifesto]
• How to write a manifesto: The two most powerful ways