Oh what’s that do you ask? Now you get to know just how weird I am!
That’s my life mission statement, areas of life and goals… please don’t judge me! Haha.
I think this started when I graduated the Pittsburgh Fellows (a Christian leadership fellowship), but it really made an impact when I read “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” last year and actually started living it out. And it completely changed my 2020.
In the book he has you write a life mission statement. And this came to mind in the first few weeks of quarantine last March. I was listening to this sermon and the Pastor was encouraging the congregation to have a different perspective on the lock down. The line I remember was him saying, “At some point this is going to end. And when you look back on this time what are you going to wish you had done.”
For some reason that lit a fire in me and it motivated me to live with a purpose. I wrote my mission statement and broke down the areas of my life and specific goals I had and the type of person I wanted to be. After having it for over a year it’s already made me live so differently!
Here’s what happened:
It changed how I spend my time. I started to really take a step back and think how I wanted to live my life. I wanted to create a life instead of letting life happen to me. I decide what is important and make time for those things.
I started to be intentional with relationships. Instead of just saying I wanted to be closer to a person, I took action steps to call them once a week or write a letter or send a text.
I started having a purpose with my money and finances. Now that I had a mission for my life I could use my finances to support those goals. Ex: trips I wanted to take, areas of giving, needs verses wants.
I stopped doing the urgent and unimportant things. Once I had a mission I was able to evaluate what I really valued and prioritize those things. I’d rather spend quality time with someone than have a clean apartment. I’d rather go on an exciting new adventure than cook extravagant meals. This means I can’t do everything, but I can choose what areas of my life I want to focus on and what things I can let go of. For me that means not having a spotless home and I don’t mind eating simple meals if it lets me do other things I enjoy more.
It holds me accountable to the things I say I want to do. I’ve always dreamed of writing a book or buying a house. This helped me really break down the actionable steps I needed to take to make those dreams come true.
It allowed me to dream bigger! To be bold in how I want to think about my life! To step outside my comfort zone or challenge myself. Giving myself freedom to really be creative with my life.
How did I do this?
Starting Broad: In the book he has you picture the end of your life. At your funeral imagine the people who stand up and speak about you. And he asks “what do you want them to say?” That’s the destination - where you want to go. From there you create a mission statement that would get you to that place. The type of person you want to be, friend, coworker, accomplishments etc.
Here's my mission statement: “As God’s Beloved, I live to love, worship and enjoy God, and to love, care for and serve others as I am made into the image of Jesus Christ.”
Next I broke down my life into the major pillars. For me those include: Spiritual, Family and Relationships, Finance, Career, Health and Fitness, Personal Growth, and Fun. If you think of your life like a company, you first have to decide on the mission of the company. Then the pillars are like the different departments.
Then I took each pillar and wrote out a vision, challenges, action plan and action items. Each vision was aligned with my overall mission statement but it was more specific to that area of life. The challenges were things that hold me back. The action plan was the practical of what this would look like. And the action items were things I needed to do so I could start living into that plan. Then I had fun and because I’m a visual person I made a vision board with pictures for each pillar.
From there I take all the action items and action plan and I schedule out my month. I’ve found that a month is a good amount of time. It’s long enough to set bigger goals, but short enough that you can generally know what it’s going to look like and remember things that happen as you reflect. I make a month plan with very specific goals for each pillar. I also have a little check box next to each one because I love the feeling of filling it in and checking it off. Then I put those things on my calendar. I schedule in times for everything I want to do.
I feel like when I share this with people they are going to think it’s super intense. I worry that they will think this is strange and life shouldn’t be so intentional and I should just have more fun or go with the flow. But then I remember really successful and well run companies and this is what they do! And we should be running our lives and families like companies that have a mission and a purpose. I think sometimes we can assume that we just have to accept whatever life throws us instead of creating the life we want.
And I know that there a so many things that are outside of our control. COVID taught me that. But that’s why this was so helpful during 2020. Because it gave intentionality during that time. I was able to think about how I wanted to live intentionally even within the hardships and curve balls we were thrown throughout the year. I had that question always in the back of my mind, “how do I want to look back on this time.” And to be honest there’s nothing I regret about the year. I was able to love God and love others in a way I never would have without a mission statement.
Also, the fun part is that you get to adjust as you go. As I reflect on each month I can decide if I want to spend more time on one area or be more intentional in another area. Maybe one month is more focused on fun and relationships and another is more focused on personal development and health. That’s the best part is I get decide what I need more and less of.
But the truth is that I’m not really the CEO of this company. As a Christian I believe that I have died to myself and am alive in Christ. So as I went through this I did it prayerfully and asked God what he wants for my life. How does he want me to use my time, body, finances and love others? Ultimately He gets to be the CEO and I get to be the COO. The Chief Operating Officer is the one who takes the vision from the CEO and puts it into practice. They make it happen. So that’s what I do with God. Through reading his scripture and prayer I get more of a picture of what he wants for my life and the vision he has for his kingdom and I align my vision, pillars and goals with that. Then by the power of His Holy Spirit I live it out.
And if you're really interested, here's my full 2021 Mission
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