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January 18 - January 18, 2024
This idea—this principle—of beginning with the end in mind is based upon the concept that all things are created twice: first in the mind, as a thought or intellectual creation; and second in reality as a physical creation.
The opposite of a mission statement is the opposite of beginning with the end in mind: beginning with no end in mind, no intellectual creation, no envisioning of the future. In other words, to let life happen.
In a sense, someone else has done the creation of your mission statement for you and, unaware, you’re simply living out the script that has been given to you. You’re really not living; you’re being lived.
The overriding primary factor was very simple—they had a sense of the future, a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning. Based on his studies, he wrote his famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Those survivors were people who had a sense that some important work was yet to be done.
“Our wounds would heal.” This sense of the future somehow triggered the healing mechanisms and immune system inside their minds and bodies. The sense that they could make a better future gave them a deep feeling of hope. He quoted Nietzsche: “He who has a ‘why’ can live with any ‘what.’”
Dr. Frankl hypothesized that we have three parts to our nature: our body, our mind, and our spirit. But his deepest conviction is that most—not all—diseases originate in the spirit. That is, in a sense of meaninglessness, a sense of hollowness, a sense of purposelessness. No mission. No vision. No future. And that this void, this hollowness, translates itself into both the mind and the body.
So as you look at your mission statement, you’ll need to work basically on two things: vision—your sense of the future—and the principles that you want to live by. Your vision is the end, the destination. Principles are the means, like the flight plan. Vision is who you really are and what you could become. Principles are those unalterable truths you feel so strongly about that you are willing to accept them as your own set of values.
First, the mission statement should be timeless. That means you write it as if it will never change.
Second, the mission statement should deal with both ends and means, which means our destination and the way that we get to our destination. In practical language that would be the development of a purpose or a vision and then the value system, hopefully one that is principle-based and enables us to accomplish our purpose or fulfill our vision.
Third, the mission statement, because it is based on principles, should deal with all the roles of your life.
Fourth, a mission statement should deal with the four dimensions of our natur...
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The body, the heart, the mind, and the spirit. The essence of these needs is captured in this phrase “to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.”
We all lead three lives: our public life, our private life, and our deep inner life.
Our secret life is where we are able to tap into the power of the four human endowments: self-awareness, conscience, imagination, and independent will.
“The thing I learned is that you don’t invent your mission, you detect it. You uncover it, as it were.” You see, everyone has special gifts, unique qualities, and characteristics. And they need to work inwardly until they detect those aspects.
When you live out of your memory, you focus on the past. When you live out of your imagination, you focus on the future. What lies behind us is nothing compared to what lies within us and ahead of us. But it took all this self-analysis, this self-awareness, this self-exploration. It took the first two prescriptions of quieting down his life and his spirit and remembering happy times to prepare him for the period of self-analysis, self-awareness, and self-exploration to develop the willingness to examine his own motives and cultivate new ones.
Listen to those who see the potential in you. Listen and sense their affirmation of you. Study the lives of people who’ve inspired you—your heroes and what it is that you admire about them—so you can get a sense of the principles on which you want to build.
What is the purpose of your life? What do you have as a focus that channels your energies? What do you have that is a passion for you? When people get focused on the highest and best use of themselves, their lives change, and that’s exciting.
Because an interest in children can have so many manifestations, you need to select from among them. You have many possible ways to fulfill that desire and that passion in you.
Like most people, we feel a gap between our ideals, our deepest values, and what we actually do. And we aren’t especially comfortable dealing with this gap. So we fear that working on a mission statement, writing it down, and seeing it in front of us will only highlight that gap. It’s going to evoke feelings of guilt; it’s going to be uncomfortable. These reasons come up, and we don’t write it.
But often people ask me: How do I really know I’m getting down to the core? How do I know that this is the mission statement stuff and not just some other stuff that’s come along? Well, one of the things that experience has taught me is that, as you live with your mission statement for a while, you will discover the answer to those questions. You will ask, “Does this lift me? Does this focus me?”
“What’s my default mode for making key decisions in life?” These decisions include who to marry, where to travel, or whether to take a particular job. In considering major defining kinds of decisions, what tends to be the factor that moves you? Reputation? Expectations of others? Fear of failure? What you think is the best, the coolest, the most full of status?
want to be like this…, I want to do this…,”—all “I” statements. The history of the world teaches that the power of joy in people doesn’t come in getting, it always comes in giving, contributing, adding more. The more you give, the more you live. If you’re about something better, live for something higher than self.
will approach my life in a thoughtful and intelligent manner. I will treat people with compassion, kindness, and fairness. I will approach each day with energy, creativity, and humor. I will not forget to relax. I will keep the dance of delight in my life. I will not work too hard, and I will give time to literature and life.
My Family Role: I will conduct myself in family life in a matter that enriches our home by my presence. My family will be happy when I’m home. I will be a leader to my extended family. My Work: I will influence people with example, in walking my talk, in principle-centered living.
