THE MISSION: A STATEMENT

On my desk at work I have a “page a day” calendar.  Usually, I go for something comical such as “Close to Home” or, when they were still being produced, “The Far Side Off the Wall Calendar”.  This year, however, I opted for “Life’s Little Instruction Calendar Volume XVII” based on the writings of H. Jackson Brown, Jr., author of “Life’s Little Instruction Book”. About a month ago, one of the most profound statements appeared as the daily maxim.  “Try writing your life’s mission statement in a single sentence.”  I don’t think a day over the last month has passed that I haven’t pondered this task.  “What,” I asked myself, “IS my mission in this life? For what purpose am I here on Earth?”

MY MISSION STATEMENT:

“My mission in this life is to live a life congruent with my own values and principals, to strive to be the friend a friend would like to have, to admit my weaknesses and faults, and to always endeavor to better myself with a lifetime of continual learning, evaluating and growing.”

Here’s my confession:  I do not believe that a “Mission Statement" should be something set in stone, but rather fluid, changeable, amendable. As we evolve on this journey called life, the human experience, we have to be willing to make adjustments along the way or we aren’t going to go very far.  As we get older, our convictions may or may not change; we may view something vastly different today than we did a year, ten years or even 40 years ago.  If we are unwilling to make changes in our lives, we risk losing out on the richness that life has to offer.  You see, to quote St. Paul, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (I Cor 13:11).  That said, life is a process, a mission, and as with any mission, there are stages and in those stages, strategies have to be evaluated in the moment. What may have worked yesterday, may not work today or tomorrow.  What we believed yesterday or today, may not be the same tomorrow.  I believe that a resistance to ridding ourselves of old patterns and processes is only setting one up for disappointment and failure in the future.

What is your mission and do you choose to accept it?