Before determining what specific goals you want to achieve in life, you need to determine what your end goal is.  The best way I have found to do this is to create a personal mission statement. 

Stephen Covey has the most information on developing a personal mission statement.  His books focus on this central theme. 

Here are questions to ask when creating a personal mission statement:

1. When your life is over and people speak at your funeral, what do you want them to say about you?  What will I have accomplished when my life is over?
2. What can you do that adds value to not only your life but the lives around you? 
3. What values and principles do I stand for?  What values and principles do you admire in others?
4. What are my talents? 
5. What are the roles I have in life? 

Take the answers to these questions and make a first draft of your personal mission statement.  Put it in your purse or wallet to keep it close to you.  Reflect on it and modify it as the weeks progress until you feel you have finessed it just so for your life.

Once you have a final draft, use it during your weekly planning and to help clarify your goals.

Ok, now I am opening myself up and sharing the notes that I made when I went through this process.  It was 10 years ago and it is interesting how little the ideas have changed even though many of the circumstances of my life have changed.  I suppose that is really the point.  You mission statement should be sustaining over time.  It is about your values and what matters most to you.  It is not fleeting. 

Jen’s Personal Mission Statement Process

What would I would like to have said about me at the end of my life?

• My wife loves me and has always demonstrated that love through faithfulness, honesty, understanding, compassion, support, and strength.
• My mom loves us very much.  She always put our family before outside influences.  Her life was an example to us through her relationships with God, family, friends, and strangers.
• Jen loves God.  She tried to live her life by 2 rules:  treating others as she wants to be treated and loving her neighbor as herself.  She put God above all else. 
• Jen has served her country with a cheerful heart.  She was an active citizen and a public servant.  She loves our country.  She constantly studied and learned how ideas for freedom work or do not work.
• Jen has worked hard to make her community a better place to live.  She looked for areas to improve and sought to improve them. 

What values and principles do I value and/or admire in others?
Honesty, integrity, love, passion to learn, sacrifice for country, sacrifice to do right thing, wisdom, leader, love of God

What are my roles? 
Christian, family member (wife and mother), American, Community Servant

First Attempt at My Mission Statement:
To live my life as an example to others by:

• Putting God first and loving God with a joyful heart
• Loving my family unconditionally and faithfully
• Treating my body with respect so I can be healthy to love and to serve
• Serving my country and the freedom for which it stands through learning, challenging others, and working to elect/vote for those who/which stand for freedom
• Serving my community by looking for areas in need of improvement and striving to improve those areas to a level of excellence
• Growing as an employee so that I learn skills that may be applied in all areas of my life.

Modified and Current Mission Statement:

I thought the original mission statement was a bit too long and wordy.  It is hard to remember.  I have modified it to the following, which encompasses much of the original intent but is less wordy. 

To live my life as an example to others by putting God first, loving my family unconditionally, treating my body with respect, and serving my country and community to make it a better place for future generations.

Here are some additional resources you may be interested in for developing a personal mission statement: 

Exercises to help develop a personal mission statement
Covey’s Mission Statement Builder
Value of Writing a Personal Mission Statement
Online Leadership Resources
Praying into Your Mission Statement

Join me for my next article in the series “Do You Have a Program to Set Goals” in which we Create a Wish List:  A List of Everything You Want to Be, Do, or Have.

In the meantime, I’d really like to hear from you.  What is your personal mission statement?  Do you have one already?  Are you going to create one?  Leave comments below telling me your mission statement and link to your blog if you are creating one from scratch. 

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