There’s Power in Having a Personal Mission Statement

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the big things we want to have or achieve in our lives (finding the perfect mate, having a baby, pursuing a passion, following a dream, doing meaningful work, etc.) we miss opportunities to see purpose in the day we’re currently living.

Our belief that our personal fulfillment lies in the accomplishment of some future goal tends to overshadow any opportunity for fulfillment that is showing up today.

When this happens, progress towards these future “big goals” starts to more heavily determine today’s attitude towards life. When things are moving forward, we feel good and it shows in our attitude towards life. When progress appears to be delayed, our attitude is impacted in the opposite direction.

And in cases where all likelihood of the big goal happening has been squashed to zero, we risk becoming jaded towards life. We risk resenting whatever it is that we perceive as keeping us from having or accomplishing those things.

The more attached we are to needing these particular goals to materialize to feel fulfilled, the more likely we are to experience negativity when the likelihood of them happening decreases.

This is why I’m such a huge advocate for using our everyday life to find meaning and purpose (as opposed to some future goal). One of the best ways to do this is to create a personal mission statement that is less oriented on traditional goals (attain this, accomplish that) and more oriented on the energy you want to bring/give to life.

Now, instead of our days passing as mundane experiences where we’re waiting for our ship to come in (and fulfill us), each day is seen as an opportunity to be purposeful just by the energy we exude.

It establishes a new framework for how we view our experiences. Instead of seeing our experiences as either moving us toward or away from the big goals (and seeing those big goals as our only means to fulfillment), each day becomes an opportunity to feel fulfilled.

Simply setting our new intention for how we want to experience our day with the values we establish in our personal mission statement moves our desire for fulfillment from some future event to what is currently happening in our day-to-day life.

This is huge. Like life-changing huge if you were previously on a path of resentment. And a huge relief if you’re feeling frustrated from not knowing what your purpose is…no need to figure out some future goal, just look at the energy you’re choosing to bring to today’s experiences and encounters to feel the fulfillment you seek.

In my opinion, our highest purpose is to extend love. But that expression of love looks different to each individual. What is it that you value most as an attribute of love that you want to share with the world?

Is it kindness? If so, make it your personal mission to be kind every day. Partake in random acts of kindness and pay it forward initiatives. Look people in the eye and smile when they pass you. Hold the door open for the person behind you or the one coming through from the other side. Then, connect these activities to you fulfilling your personal mission.

I think there are a lot of things that we naturally do without connecting it to us extending love (our highest purpose). One key to shifting where we feel purposeful is to recognize what we’re already doing. Once we connect this to our personal mission, we’ll begin to feel more purposeful in our daily activities.

Maybe you’re already naturally good a being positive. Great, make it your personal mission to be positive (in some way) every day. Even if you’re having an off day, being “on-purpose” with your mission could simply mean keeping your personal turmoil to yourself and not letting it spoil how you interact with others (be sure to give yourself credit for this as being “on purpose”).

Identify the attribute or attributes that you want to make it your personal mission to express. If it’s “being loving”, how does that most often look for you? This could be an outer action like offering words of encouragement to others, smiling often or physically helping in some way or it could be an inner action like refraining from judgment, practicing forgiveness, focusing on your own inner healing so that more love is allowed to flow through you, etc.

All of these examples are equally purposeful when it comes to extending love into the world, but which one lights you up such that you want to commit to it as your personal mission?

Eventually each of these aspects of love will flow naturally, depending on what the situation calls for. However, in terms of creating the initial momentum, I think it’s best to focus on a few that feel easy and natural right now.

Otherwise, if you try to take on being all aspect of love right now, you’re gonna end up feeling guilty for all the times you missed out on how you could have been loving. Start with a few (or just one), allow momentum to kick in, then, slowly keep adjusting your mission statement until it’s more inclusive of all aspects of love.

I think this process of creating and anchoring in a personal mission statement is one of the quickest ways to begin changing the momentum of your energy from believing purpose and fulfillment lies in attaining some future goal to realizing it lies in giving, right where you are.

Big (in the world) accomplishments may still happen; however, they’ll happen as an extension of our personal mission to give, not out of a need to receive. We must be mindful of this or else the intent behind our actions risks reverting back to what we can get, instead of what we can give.

To sharing our light with the world (starting today, right where we are),

Shanna