Do you have a personal mission statement?

Do you have a personal mission statement? Many successful people have one. When I was teaching, I would have my students complete two important exercises. The first was to create a bucket list of 100 places and things they would like to do before they died.

The second exercise was to complete a personal values or mission statement. Many of us have forgotten that we control our own destinies for the most part and what allows us to reach forward is the values and mission we hold important in life.  What is the best way to write your mission statement? It is to always write in the present tense, as though you have already become the person that you have described. It is always positive rather than negative. And it is always personal.

Your subconscious mind can only accept your mission statement as a set of commands when you phrase it in the present, positive and personal tenses. "I am an exceptional person," is a perfect example.  You should quickly reread your mission statement and ask yourself if your recent behaviour was more like the person you want to be, or less? 

As a top performer, you are always comparing your activities against a high standard and adjusting your activities upward. You're continually striving to be better. Every day in every way, you are deliberately working to become more like the ideal person you have envisioned.

Your goal is that a year from today, when one of your friends has lunch with you and you ask them to describe you in detail as a person, your friend will recite your personal mission statement voluntarily. 

Once you have developed a mission statement, you can read it, review it, edit it, and upgrade it regularly. You can add additional qualities to it and more clearly define the qualities you've already listed. It becomes your personal credo, your philosophy of life, your statement of beliefs and a guide to your behaviour in all your interactions with others. Each day, you can evaluate your behaviours and compare them against the standard that you have set in this statement.

Over time, a remarkable thing will happen. As you read and review your personal mission statement, you will find yourself, almost unconsciously, shaping your words and confirming your behaviours so that you are more and more like the ideal person you have defined. People will notice the change in you almost immediately. Over time, you will find that you are actually creating within yourself the kind of character and personality that you most admire in others. You will have become the moulder and the shaper of your own personal destiny. 

When you retire, you have to review and perhaps rewrite your personal mission statement. How do you start on this journey? First, talk to yourself positively all the time. Feed your mind with positive messages that describe your goals and the person you want to be. Second, remove ageism from your self-talk, third focus on living in the moment. Fourth, allow yourself to dream again.