Did you know that a well-defined personal mission statement can help you reach your goals? Even if you’re not sure what exactly a personal mission statement is, chances are high that you’ve seen a personal mission statement template somewhere.
Why? Because people and companies around the world have been creating mission statements to explain their purposes and the reasons for their existence for so long. Such kinds of business statements are everywhere: in promotional brochures, official websites, and even on the walls of their company buildings.
Not only companies, but you can also create your own personal mission statement to declare your purpose, identity, and motivation. But writing a personal mission statement isn’t easy.
There are plenty of things you should take into account to make it the most powerful tool for pursuing your goals. In this article, we will describe the meaning and benefits of creating personal mission statements, offer tips about writing personal mission statements, and provide specific examples for both students and leaders.
What Is a Personal Mission Statement?
A personal mission statement can be defined as an objective statement that declares your values, objectives, your unique perspective of life and in general, you as a person. It’s a written declaration of your intentions or purposes that demonstrates how you define success.
The main aim of a personal mission statement is to show why your life goals are so important to you and how you plan to achieve them.
As Austrian-American author and management consultant Peter F. Drucker believes, every mission statement should contain three important aspects:
- Opportunities: We should define what our purposes are, what we like to achieve, and how we plan to pursue these goals.
- Competence: A mission statement should show why we do what we do, how competent we are, and what our skills are in the work we do.
- Commitment: It should be clear how dedicated we are to this goal, and why we want to be remembered.
Why is a Personal Mission Statement Important?
A personal mission statement is accompanied by plenty of benefits either for college students or business executives. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the process of determining your career goals or already know what you want to do in life, a personal mission statement will help you better plan your life and pursue your dreams.
People often experience stagnation in their career paths. As research shows, the reason is that they don’t know whether they have an opportunity for career growth or not. But since career development is a crucial factor for job satisfaction, they feel they lack engagement with their career.
A personal mission statement helps us to prevent career stagnation because it’s a useful instrument to focus on long-term goals and plan our careers productively. Moreover, people often find themselves unable to change.
They are resistant to growing and developing because they have self-doubt and feel uncertainty about their true purpose and motivation in life. According to Forbes, self-doubt and resistance to change are some of the reasons why you need to create a personal mission statement.
A personal mission statement can be used as a guide for the journey through life. It aids people to determine their life principles and shows them where exactly they want to go in life. Generally, one of the main reasons why people fail at work is that they don’t have clear goals which makes them lose focus.
That’s why successful people tend to realize the benefits of having a personal mission statement. This one small statement will help you maintain focus, set long-term goals, and track your progress. As a result, you make decisions more easily during your entire career.
How to Write a Personal Mission Statement
Although personal mission statements seem very simple and straightforward, actually creating a powerful statement requires plenty of time and effort. However, your time is worth a great personal mission statement.
Try to focus on your values and life goals and follow these four steps if you want to create an outstanding statement:
Identify your values
What do you value in everyday life? Brainstorm and write down everything that seems important to you.
Your values could be everything – either something related to your career path or completely irrelevant interests of yours. Try to order your values according to your priorities.
Focus on your goals
After identifying your values and priorities, now it’s time to set the real goals. What are the biggest professional or personal goals you have always dreamt about? How do you imagine your future career path? What would you like to achieve in the future?
Answer these questions by writing down your answers explicitly. Why? Because neuroscience proves you need to write down your goals if you want to actually achieve them.
Point out your skills
What are you good at? What is your superpower? What makes you stand out from other people? Think about your strengths. It could be anything from creative thinking to expressing empathy towards people.
Try to be objective and ask your peers about your strengths. Write down the core skills you want to use in the way of achieving your goals.
Choose the target audience
Who are the people you would like to use your talents for? Picking the target audience will help you to narrow your focus and determine your exact plans.
So, think about the people who will receive your help. It could be children, teenagers, women, businessmen, students, or anyone.
Add details to your personal goals
The last step is to add some specific details. Now as you’ve already created general life plans, it’s time to narrow your focus by pointing out some details.
Think about the milestones in the process of achieving your goal, but keep in mind your general vision. Which skills are you going to use to get what you want? How do you want to make a change?
25 Examples of Personal Mission Statements
If you’re still uncertain about how personal mission statements look exactly, you can take a look at the specific examples to get clearer ideas of how to start writing your own statement.
After reading these examples, you will eventually find out that you can either focus on your work or general life principles.
Here are some of the powerful personal mission statement examples you can rely on:
- To use my skills to educate women around the world.
- To create new opportunities for students who need help.
- To help as many elderly people as possible.
- To be a life coach and inspire people to become the best versions of themselves.
- To use my creative potential to create stories for children.
- To use my empathy to help people recover from mental problems.
- To provide opportunities for men, women, and children living in poverty.
- To bring education to women around the world by creating innovative software applications.
- To save lives.
- To provide job opportunities for unemployed people in Eastern countries.
- To help today’s youth grow and develop.
- To help every person I meet become more confident and use their full potential.
- To use my empathy to help people increase psychological well-being.
- To provide resources for students to find their objectives and build their career paths.
- To express unconditional love and treat everyone equally.
- To encourage women to become entrepreneurs.
- To support people in pain around me.
- To inspire teachers around the world.
- To use my medical skills to save lives.
- To inspire people to become active citizens.
- To make the world a better place.
- To inspire children to pursue their dreams.
- To write stories that educate and inspire.
- To be a leader and encourage my team to develop innovative solutions.
- To share my expertise in leadership and team management.
Personal Mission Statement Examples for Leaders
If you’re a leader trying to set clear goals and identify your objectives, analyzing the following personal mission statement examples may help you to develop your own vision of life.
- “To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference” – Denise Morrison
In this example, the author, Denise Morrison, declares her objective (to serve as a leader), how she’s going to do it (live a balanced life and apply ethical principles) and what impact she’s going to make (to make a significant difference).
- “To be a leader by encouraging creative thinking so that my team will create innovative solutions”.
The objective is to be a leader; the mechanism of achieving this goal is to encourage the team members to think creatively; the goal is to create innovative solutions.
- “To become a leader and teach studies on policy and law to help women around the world get involved in politics”.
The objective is to become a leader. The way of pursuing this goal is to teach studies on policy and law. The change is to help women participate in world politics.
Personal Mission Statement Examples for College Students
Studies show that having a personal mission statement has become very helpful for university students. In this section, we will discuss a few examples of personal mission statements to help college students define their missions and create powerful statements.
- “To use my knowledge to develop my skills and contribute to making the world a better place.”
In this example, the objective is to use knowledge; the way the author is going to do it is to develop skills and the overall impact is making the world a better place.
- “To build a network of students by using my interpersonal skills to help students plan their career paths”.
The objective is to build a network of students; the mechanism of focusing on this objective is to use interpersonal skills; the impact is to help students organize their careers.
- “To learn in order to grow into someone who can change the world”.
The objective of this college student is to change the world; the way of achieving this goal is to learn.
7 Inspiring Quotes for Personal Mission Statement
Before you start working on your personal mission statement, take a look at the quotes that might inspire you to pursue your life missions.
- “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” – Chris Grosser
- “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
- “Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building.” – Dave Ramsey
- “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey
- “The most extraordinary people in the world today don’t have a career. They have a mission.” – Vishen Lakhiani
- “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
- “To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.” – Abdul Kalam
Frequently Asked Questions About Personal Mission Statement
What are the 3 parts of a mission statement?
A powerful personal mission statement consists of 3 elements:
- Target audience – first you need to define the key market you want to focus on to achieve your mission.
- Contribution – point out the results you’re planning to achieve.
- Distinction – what makes your mission stand out? Why should your audience prefer your service over others?
What is a good mission statement?
A good mission statement must be a clear declaration of your future objectives. You should focus on some values that are praised by society as well as your strengths and aims.
A powerful mission statement should reflect your personality, skills, goals, and visions of life. It describes what you stand for and how you’re going to create a life you wish for. A good statement is your personal definition of success.
Why is having a personal mission statement important?
A personal mission statement objective is to declare your purpose in life. It’s an act of self-discovery that combines your values and integrates who you are in a couple of sentences.
The main goal of a personal mission statement is to help you provide focus in life, simplify the decision-making process about your future goals and make you feel accountable for your actions. Personal mission statements allow us to discover ourselves and feel more satisfied in everyday life.
