How to Develop a Personal Vision and Mission Statement

Envision the Beginning

Creating a personal vision statement and mission is not a simple task. To clearly reflect a true personal vision and reach the core of your being, you must be capable of peeling back layers to achieve the depth of thought needed to define personal vision. There is no perfect path to a writing a personal vision statement, but there are some general steps and exercises that can be useful in developing a working statement that can be refined into a useful document.

Instructions

1. The first step is creating an outcome. This exercise requires some reflective thinking, so it is best to set some time aside without disturbances or interruption. Start looking at what you would like to achieve in life as if you were looking back at it having already accomplished it. Do not rule out any possibilities. This should be your heart's desire without any limitations placed upon it. Write down what it is that you have accomplished in your vision and describe what it looks and feels like. Rough ideas at this point are a good start.

2. Reflect on what has been written. Does it describe what you want? If it does not, review and rework the rough draft until it feels right. Again, do not focus on limitations; if you could achieve your deepest desires, what would they be? Capture it on paper. Sort through what has been written to determine if your wishes are reflected or if they are tangled with someone else's. Distill this down to what you want for yourself. Place emphasis on self worth as this is a vision to help guide you to achieving your goals. Shortcomings do not come into play in a vision statement. If you believe you already know what you want, challenge and refine it; live evolves, and so does vision.

3. Describe the following in terms of what you have written to this point: self image, tangibles, living environment, health, relationships, work, personal pursuits and community. Develop these items into a purpose for your life. Continue describing these items until you are satisfied that the results depict a picture of what you envision for yourself. At this point, much of what is written is a mixture of self and selfless essentials. In terms of desire, timing and what it brings you, examine each item to see if they are still relevant to you. Clarify or eliminate anything that becomes irrelevant. Peel away any superficial layers until what is left is a sense of what your desires are.

4. Develop a list of values. Jot down what comes into your mind as important values. List as many as you can think of that have value to you. A minimum of 10 values is a good starting point. Once this is completed, review the list. If you have more than 10, eliminate the values that are least important to you until you pare the list down to 10. Rank the 10 values left from one to 10, with one being the most important. Eliminate the bottom five. Re-examine the remaining five values and rank them again. This time eliminate the bottom two values. Take the remaining three values and define what they mean to you. Review them again. Do they still feel like the most important? If not, revisit the top five and rework the list of values until you find the three that you cannot rule out after defining what they mean to you.

5. Craft all of the information you have drawn from your personal reflection concerning your vision and value into a statement about who you are. This will take more than one draft. Wordsmith the statement until you feel it accurately reflects a vision of who you are. From your vision, you can now move to your mission; what do you want to do in terms of your vision. Define the vision in terms of the actions you take in your life.

6. The mission statement should support the vision. If it does not, something is out of alignment. The point of developing a vision and a mission is to align your actions with your vision. Once you have a mission that supports your vision, it can be distilled down into primary goals. Goals state how you accomplish your mission is terms of your vision. Once your vision, values and mission are defined, goals can set incremental steps to support your mission and achieve your vision.

7. You are now on the road to achieving what you want out of life. This exercise can be applied to any choice or path taken on your personal journey. As issues arise, ask how you can respond to the situation that keeps you in alignment with your mission and vision. Make the decision, take the action that best supports your personal vision. Asking this simple question "How does this impact my vision and mission?" can help to keep you on track with what it is that you want to spend your time and energy on. The question is simple, but sometimes the answers can be complex and confusing. If the issues are still unclear, measure the situation or possible outcomes against your values and goals. Practicing does improve the process. The better you know yourself, the easier the answers will come.

Tips & Warnings

• The more reflective thinking done on the front end of this process, the better chance you have of developing a clear vision. Vision, mission, values and goals help define the direction you want to take in your life and provide a roadmap to achieving your true desires. Assessing where you are at the current time and comparing it to your mission and vision can help to determine how you set your goals. There is only one thing that will derail you at this point: Failure to clearly identify your vision and frame your decisions in terms of your vision.

• This article was written based on the work of Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline. For further information check out the reference book listed. Reference Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Random House, Inc.

References

• Time Thoughts: Writing a Personal Mission Statement
• Stephen Covey: Mission Statements

Resources

• FranklinCovey: Home