How to Develop Your Personal Mission Statement

by Stephen R. Covey

Lord Bacon put it this way: “Reading maketh a full man, but writing maketh an exact man.”

When you live out of your memory, you focus on the past. When you live out of your imagination, you focus on the future.

When you prepare for your own mission statement, ask the deeper questions. What are your unique gifts? 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.

I remember hearing Robert Schuller speaking about this interesting concept: If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you give your life to? If you knew you didn’t have to work for a living, what would you give your life to?