One Thing I Do Every Day That Helps Me Say No

Every day at the bottom of my personal planner, I write this phrase: “I exist to help people and institutions discover, live and communicate a better story to the world.”

Simply writing this sentence everyday keeps me on track.

On any given day, between two and three people email or call asking if they can get together. Of course it would be impossible to meet every person, so I use this simple sentence as a guide.

Is getting together going to help them live a better story?

If so, I consider it. If it seems unrelated (a great real-estate opportunity!) I sadly have to turn it down.

Have you developed a personal mission statement yet?

Having one can save you an enormous amount of time and energy. A personal mission statement acts as a filter that will help you make decisions.

I arrived at my personal mission statement by asking myself a few simple questions.

Here are those questions:

What do I love doing that also benefits others?
What do other people say I’m good at?
What “gives me life” as I move throughout my day?

Answering these three questions may help you triangulate your personal mission.

I love thinking about story, business and pyschology, for example. So I help people and businesses figure out their story. And it gives me life to do so.

Not only this, people say I’m good at it and it benefits them to work with me.

So, from this, I developed a personal mission statement.

If you’ve not developed your personal mission statement, consider doing so soon. It’s helped me tremendously.

Hope it helps you too.