What's Your Mission?

Author : Jim Rohrbach
Forget about New Year's resolutions — What's your mission?"Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18 Happy New Year to you! A new year, a new beginning. If you're like most people, you've probably flirted around with New Year's resolutions: You've said, "THIS is the year I'm gonna lose weight and get in shape. Starting January 1, no more snacking. I'm joining the health club and I'm gonna work out daily. I may even do my first marathon." What happens? By February 1 (at the latest) you're back on the junk-food regimen, you've been to the club a total of five times (you're "just too busy to get there"), and you've filed that marathon application in the trash. And you've concluded, "Resolutions don't work for me." (You've got a lot of company on that one.)Maybe you need a better approach. Instead of making a mental resolution, create a Mission Statement. The difference?A Mission Statement:• is a handwritten or typed-out paragraph• is posted someplace you can see it regularly• is committed to memory• has specific, measurable outcomes• has a deadline — in this case, December 31Here's a process you can use right now to create a Mission Statement for personal success in your career or business.Step AWrite down five positive personality characteristics you like about yourself in your career/business. For example: willingness to learn, persistence, creativity, friendliness, sense of humor, etc.Step BFor the items you listed above, describe the way you express each positive characteristic on a regular basis in your career, using the word "by" to begin each phrase. For example, if you listed "willingness to learn" above, you might write "by being committed to ongoing professional development" below. Another example: If you wrote "persistence" above, you might write "by making sure the job always gets done" below.Step CWrite down five goals you'd like to achieve by one year from today. For example, "Own at least two investment properties." Be specific — avoid using words like "more" or "improve" and instead write the exact outcome you want to achieve Also, write down a specific financial goal separate from these five goals that you intend to achieve this year.Step DLook back over Steps A, B and C, circling the three most important items in each step.Step ENow fill in the blanks of the paragraph located below. When finished, you will have a short paragraph that reads something like:"My purpose is to express my intelligence, creativity, and people skills by continually learning and applying new ideas, by finding unique solutions to my clients' problems, and by building a powerful network of contacts to create 15 new corporate accounts, a steady flow of referrals and renewal business, full technological competence, and at least $125,000 in gross commissions by this date one year from today."I hope you give this deceptively simple exercise a try, and I encourage you to follow the guidelines above of posting it where you can review it, committing it to memory, and reciting it daily. Then you won't need to make any more fruitless resolutions — you'll be like The Blues Brothers ... you'll be on "a Mission from God."Use Nightingale Conant's free online Mission Statement Builder to build your Mission Statement.Jim Rohrbach is "The Personal Fitness Trainer for Your Business." He coaches business owners, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and corporate executives on building their clientele. Author of the books Business Success Skills and The Social Skills Playbook, he has helped hundreds of individuals to achieve their goals since he developed his first coaching program in 1982.Jim holds a BA in Psychology, a Master's Degree in Education and has completed Ph.D. course work in counseling. In addition he has participated in personal & professional development workshops on self-esteem, communication skills, leadership, time management, sales and business management.
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