Creating or Renewing Your Personal Mission Statement

What kind of mark to you want to leave on the world? On your family? On your friends?

How do you want to be remembered? By your colleagues? Your peers? Your community?

As those who care for people experiencing or affected by serious illness, we live in the face of others’ mortality and are often privileged to companion them as they wrestle with questions like these. Their honest struggle can inspire us to live with meaning and intention long before we face our own serious illness or death.

One of the ways to stay connected to our personal sources of meaning and purpose is to craft your own mission statement. Psychologist and author Leah Weiss offers the following steps:

1.    List your most important values and beliefs.

2.    List the things that threaten all of the items in #1.

3.    Note the behaviors you do not want to engage in (at work or at home or elsewhere).

4.    Turn it into a statement  – one sentence that summarizes your goals.

5.    Create a list you can take with you – color it, print it, put it on a Post-It note.

6.    Look at your list regularly to stay on track.

Example mission statements:

“I will care compassionately for myself and others at work and home and avoid comparisons, self-criticism and judgments that make compassion more difficult.”

“I will seek to listen deeply before rushing to speak and avoid tuning out, jumping ahead or distractions that hinder my ability to listen well.”

“I will bring my full attention to others when and where it is needed and avoid multitasking and overuse of my smartphone when my full attention is required.”

For reflection alone or together:

Take time to follow the steps above and write down your mission statement.

Share with it with at least one other person.