revolutionary in training

It’s all very well and good to have dreams; in fact, I think they make life worth living. But just dreaming isn’t enough. You’ve got to start defining your dreams: what they look like to you, how you’re going to make them happen, and what their impact is going to be. Otherwise the inspiration you feel while dreaming your dreams just dissipates into the air, leaving you feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and unfulfilled. I should know; I spent my whole life up until this year dreaming dreams that never came true because I hadn’t defined them.

Having a dream for your life gives you energy, motivation and passion to go out into the world and make your mark. However, it’s not enough just to dream, you have to take it to the next level by defining your mission statement.

A mission statement is a written-down reason for being which clarifies what you do with your life.

Identifying your mission statement is a critical component to fulfilling your life’s calling. With a clear, simple mission statement you have the most powerful tool in your hands to make life’s important decisions like what job to take, and even the smaller ones such as which activities to do on the weekends. Your mission statement should be one sentence long, easily understood by a 10-year old, and in alignment with your passions. This will make your mission both memorable and inspiring and help keep you on the road to making your dreams come true.

Let’s take my mission statement for example: “My mission is to inspire and empower people to live passionate, fulfilling lives of service.” You’ll notice there are three basic components: the verbs which make up the actions I take (inspire and empower); the adverbs which define what impact I want to have (passionate and fulfilling); and the noun which identifies who or what my mission affects (lives). These pieces work together to create a very simple sentence which truly sums up who I am and what I’m about. The mission statement you construct for yourself should do the same thing for you.

As soon as I created my mission statement so many things in my life became clear. First, the reason I never enjoyed any of my jobs was because they failed to align with my mission, or calling to put another name to it. Secondly, I realized that the times I had lived my mission statement through other avenues such as volunteer work or chats with friends, was when I felt most fulfilled, passionate, and alive. I knew that if I started making conscious decisions to start living my mission everyday instead of waiting for it to come to me, that I could actually live the live I’ve always dreamed of. And that’s how I started the journey of working (yes, it actually takes work) to making my mission an integral part of my life and work.

With your own mission statement in hand (on paper), in your mind and heart, you, too, can start living the life you’ve always dreamed of. The better you know yourself, the easier it will be to define your mission. Don’t worry about getting it perfect the first time; it took me a few drafts until it was perfect. Give yourself time to mull over the words which make the strongest connection to what you want to do with your life and who you want to impact. There may be only one verb which works best for you or perhaps there will be three. Just keep it simple and make sure it works for all of your life, not just your work but who you are off the job.

The best resource I’ve found for developing your mission statement is a book by Laurie Beth Jones called, “The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life“. I can’t recommend this book enough! It has inspiring stories, step-by-step instructions, and poignant questions which will help you pinpoint your mission and how you’re going to make it happen. Run to the bookstore right now and buy it. You’ll be amazed at how having a mission statement for your life will help you make it the life you’ve been dreaming of.

Revolutionary Reading:

The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life. By Laurie Beth Jones.