Priorities, Part 1

Photo via BarryDean

Wouldn't it be nice to be a black belt in Kung Foo, prized sailboat racer, #1 parent, and homemade cookie entrepreneur? Or perhaps you aspire to be a top New York attorney, back-country skier, Habitat for Humanity volunteer of the year, and moonlight as a radio DJ?

We're fortunate to live in an age of endless possibilities. With the world at our fingertips, the internet age has brought with it so much information that many of us feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advice, knowledge, propaganda, ideas, instruction, advertisement... (in short, info) that a single Google search can bring. And yet, the more we are exposed to, the more we tend to want as well.

Here's an example I think most of us can relate to: You're running errands with a friend who needs to pick something up at Target. You don't want anything from the store, but you go in to be a pal anyways. By the time you hit Aisle 3, you've got a cart full of must have merchandise you didn't have the least bit of desire for before you entered the automatic doors to consumer heaven.

Photo via KrazyCouponLady

I think the same concept can be applied to the buffet of information the internet provides. You see, many of us might see bits and pieces of other people's lives online and suddenly realize we want our lives to be like that too! We want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro just like that cool-looking earthy guy did on his blog. We want to bake fresh bread for our family every day with that great e-book recipe. We want to take up base jumping like in those sweet YouTube videos. We want to take adult education classes like Oprah told us to on her podcast. We want to do all this and more.

I'm not suggesting that the internet has done anything wrong - but there's no denying that it has exposed us to so many more opportunities than our ancestors would have ever realized. The catch is, we don't have any more time in a day than they did to take advantage of these opportunities. We don't have considerably more money to fund them either. So where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a position to practice some serious prioritizing - prioritizing where our time, money, and effort will go. Prioritizing may seem to some like a limiting exercise. After all, if you're setting priorities it ultimately means some things you want to do just won't make the cut. In reality, prioritizing is a powerful tool for making the most of your resources and overcoming opportunity overload.

Tune in next time when I'll be exploring some tips for setting empowering priorities that fit your desires.

Mission Statements

Having spent many years studying business, the importance of a strong mission statement is not to be underestimated when it comes to a company’s (or any organization’s) success (for-profit or otherwise). But it turns out that mission statements are a powerful tool for us as individuals as well. A personal mission statement is a great way to focus your reason for getting up each day into a single, succinct blurb.

So what’s the purpose of a mission statement? It can be your mantra when you need an extra boost to pursue your goals and a reminder of what’s most important in your life. It can also serve as a compass for decision making – helping you to evaluate options in terms of whether or not they will support your self-defined ultimate purpose on this earth. Perhaps most importantly of all, the process of crafting your mission statement can be an empowering experience; opening up your imagination and your heart to possibilities you may have dismissed as naïve or improbable in the past.

So what makes a good mission statement? Any business student will tell you it’s a short (ideally a sentence in length)  articulation of your reason for operation that is specific enough to be measured but broad enough to ensure you have a purpose for many years to come. If you need a little inspiration, Google your favorite businesses and check out their mission or vision statements. In fact, a particularly good example is Google itself. You can find this text on Google’s Corporate website.

“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Notice that Google hasn't pigeon-holed itself, the organization is able to keep this mission even as technology changes. Once you have some solid examples to get your wheels spinning, block out a little time for yourself to do some soul searching. If you’re having trouble narrowing down what your purpose is for your mission statements, here are a few questions to get you started:

•    What topics get you excited, agitated, bring out the rawist emotions in you, or maybe even get you angry when they arise in conversation?  What is it you’re so passionate about that gives rise to these emotions?
  
•    What activities do you look forward to the most? Which of these activities  give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment?
•    When was the last time you woke up and bounded out of bed, ready to take on the day? What did you do that day that gave rise to this feeling?

For some of us, crafting a personal mission statement that sticks may be a simple task, while for others it may take some serious reflection. Maybe you are already living your mission statement each and every day, and that’s wonderful! Or maybe your true purpose is to create a more peaceful planet as an animal activist and you work in a puppy mill – that’s ok too!  You’ve now taken the first step to reaigning your actions with your life purpose.

My own mission statement is a work in progress, but the groundwork is in place. Here’s what I have so far: To help others discover health, happiness, compassion for all beings, and a curiosity about the world around them. While I still have some fine tuning to do, I think this statement really sums up what I feel my purpose is.  

Tune in next time for some more tips for creating YOUR mission statement and making it a reality!