Your personal mission statement is your reason for being. It’s a definition of what you need to do to achieve your correct path in life. It encompasses your aspirations, dreams, and what you want to accomplish in life.

Businesses have their mission statements, and there is a reason why they do. Mission statements ensure businesses align their values to what the company considers important. It also helps everyone in the company stay focused on changing the world and making an impact on the work they do. Customers who share these same values will be attracted to these kinds of business too. A personal mission statement should also be taken with the same seriousness as the company mission statement.

The question of whom one is and their purpose in life comes about when one is about to choose a career, find their use in life or when nothing seems to be working out and feel stuck. The personal mission statement defines your career goals and skills. It describes your aspirations and how you want to accomplish them.

This could be the big break you have been looking for. Finding your mission can take you on a self-discovery path. It could show you opportunities you never thought were there, open your mind to ideas you never took seriously or never had. All this by asking the one question most of us are afraid to ask, ‘who am I and what do I truly want?’ The answer to this allows you to focus your energy, behavior, and actions towards what’s important to you.

Table of contents

1. Guidelines for writing a mission statement
2. Developing a personal mission statement
3. Write down your mission statement

Guidelines for writing a mission statement

• Keep it brief, simple and clear. Not more than five sentences long.
• It should describe your focus points and whom you intend to become as a person.
• Consider actions, habits, behaviors, and qualities that would positively impact your life in the next 3 to 5 years.
• Be positive when writing the mission statement. Find alternatives to any negative thought you may have.
• The statement should include values, behaviors, and traits you consider essential and aim to develop.
• How do these actions and behaviors affect the relationships you have with other people?
• Make your mission statement a guide to your everyday life.
• How does the mission affect other parts of your life? Does it fall in line with your values? Is it contradicting any part of your life?
• Use emotion when coming up with the mission statement. An emotional mission statement is inspiring, energizing and compelling.
• Your mission statement is flexible. We continue to change with each passing day and so should your mission statement evolve. Set aside time every year or after every three years to revise your mission statement if necessary.

Developing a personal mission statement

An effective mission statement should make you accountable. It should be clear in outlining your path and giving you a sense of purpose. It’s not surprising to note that most people have their careers based on their friends or family’s dreams, or expectations. Doing this will only make you miserable. You are not living your dream, and so your energies will be wrong, but you can’t tell why.

The following questions will help you come up with a great personal mission statement.

1. What do you consider essential?
Take your time to think back on past experiences or events that made you extremely happy. Identify a time when you had a personal success either at work, at home or in the community. Jot them down and try and find a common theme around them.

What are your interests and passions? What do you find exciting and rewarding? Identify your beliefs and values. Which ones improve the quality of your life? What people or friends have the same values and beliefs as you? Make time for them.

List down your core values or attributes that make you who you are. Make a list as long as you can. Once completed, narrow it down to around six important ones. From this 6, choose one that’s most important for you. Do the same for your goals. Think about what the priorities of your life are. Make a list of the short-term and long-term goals, then come up with timelines for achieving them.

In your search, you may find that at some degree, your behavior and values have been leading you to what’s important, but you haven’t noticed yet.

2. What’s your personality?
You cannot fully live up to your potential if you lie to yourself about who you are. Are you a self-doubting person who is always worried or are you a positive person who is content and doesn’t let stress affect them? Are you social or an introvert? Are you curious, practical and focused? Are you modest, trusting and sympathetic or are you guarded and self-protective? Are you sure of your abilities or do you lack drive?

3. What are your strengths, skills, and talents?
What are you good at? This is not something you do out of obligation but something you love and enjoy doing. You might be surprised to know that even though you like your work, your talent does not lie there. You just practiced doing it, learned how to do it and finally, it became part of you. Think about it this way, if your doctor said that you have three months of your life left, would you wake up every morning and drive to work for those three months?

Engaging your strengths and skills can help you grow your passions and personality. Realizing what they will make you more productive, creative and happy. You will learn to appreciate life and especially the little moments.

If you are having a hard time recognizing your strengths and skills, ask your family members and friends. What do they see in you?

4. Who and what deserves your time?
Most people spend their whole life surrounded by negative energy, and it slowly takes the life out of them. If the people you surround yourself with are toxic and bring you down without seeking to make your life a better one, then your mission and vision will never be realized. Look for people who build you, who want to see you succeed, who bring you joy and enrich it with the little moments.

Find ways you can contribute, voluntarily, to either make a difference in someone’s life or change the world.

5. Are you making time for your goals and personal development?

It’s unfair to be taking care of everyone else but yourself. As you work to achieve your career goals, think about your personal development. Take care of yourself by prioritizing yourself and focusing on your dreams. Forget what the world tells you to be, or what your parents have decided they want you to become. Think about what you wish for yourself and work towards achieving it.

6. Where will your dreams take you?
As you work on your dreams, where will they take you? What do you want to be different in three or five years to come? Decide where your mission will have you in three or five years to come.

7. Why are these goals important to you?
Every goal should have a reason. The personal mission should clarify why your goals are essential. Why do you want to succeed? What is it you want to achieve at the end of the five years?

8. How do you plan on achieving these goals?
How are you going to get where you want to be in those five years? How will you prioritize these goals? How do you ensure that you achieve your career goals, family goals as well as your personal goals? In what priority are you going to try and reach them? Will your personal goals have as much time dedicated to them as your career goals?

Write down your mission statement

After taking this self-discovery journey, you can now write your mission statement with ease. These questions will give you clarity on the purpose of your life. With them, you can pick out from the different lists, your values, personality, passions, strengths, skills, interests, and talents. You can now determine what you want to get from your life, what you stand for, what makes you unique, what you want to achieve and finally your mission in life.

Answer this, and you have a mission statement for your life. Write them down, and you have a paragraph defining your mission statement. Once you figure out what it is, you become unstoppable in the quest to fulfill it. Your happiness and purpose should be non-negotiable. Make sure it makes you happy and is the best thing for you.

Take your time to craft your mission statement. Don’t be in a hurry. If it changes with time, that’s okay. You may also find you have more than one. The trick is to focus on finding it without seeking validation from anyone. It’s personal, but you should remain true to yourself.