DISCOVER YOUR MISSION NOW
Life by design begins with discovering your mission in life. Your mission is central to who you are as a person. People who live the happiest and most fulfilling lives all have more than just a sense of mission, they are ON a mission. They are living a wonderful daily journey with a sense of purpose. A purpose that is natural and comfortable. When you are on a mission, nothing can stop you. Being on a mission means engaging yourself in those activities that are most important to you in life. Being on a mission means being involved with the people you care most for in life. Your mission is a reflection of the true you.
Goal setting, which will be discussed later, is an important part of life by design. It is unfortunate that goal setting is usually done outside the greater context of a life mission. This only provides frustration for the individual. In Life by Design, we utilize goals within the framework of your personal mission statement. If goals are not compatible with your mission statement, then you can make new goals.
Your mission in life is discoverable by asking some important questions of yourself which you can answer below.
MISSION DISCOVERY
Please answer the following questions in the space given below. You may use extra paper should it become necessary. Without the benefit of the “discovery session” which follows, please answer in some detail, these next two questions.
What is the purpose for your life?
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If you do not know, what would you like the purpose of your life to be?
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Next, select up to four major purposes for your life. It is very important that you write your mission for YOU, not someone’s distorted image of you. (If you felt “called” to the ministry and your parents want you to be a lawyer, what you feel your calling is, is what it important in this process.) Your life mission can be as simple as being a good parent and spouse or as encompassing as being a worldwide evangelist to save souls. Or both. Note your mission(s) in order of importance to you. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Your true life mission is that which you will not compromise for anything. Circle your most important life mission if you write more than one. Do this below, now, before you read any further.
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Life purpose and life mission are similar concepts. The work you have done above, will help you hone in on your personal life mission below. {The author’s personal life mission is to continue to create a life for my family that is full of love and happiness. My secondary mission is to free the minds and hearts of people across the globe. To help people learn to dream and realize their dreams.}
Knowing your life mission is a very powerful and sobering discovery. Your life mission is the purpose and the reason for which you are alive. No one can tell you what your life mission is. You, and only you can discover your mission(s) in life. Many people go through their entire life without ever uncovering their mission in life. Once you know what your mission is in life…the mission YOU have selected for yourself, then you can write a personal life mission statement.
Your personal mission statement will include the following points and possibly more that you feel are necessary. Simply complete the sentences below with your first response. If two responses immediately come to mind, not, them both. Please do this now, before proceeding.
- The reason I am here, alive today, is to:________________________________________________
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- My mission in life is to:________________________________________________
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- I will be the best me I can when I:________________________________________________
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- What gives my life a true sense of meaning is:________________________________________________
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- More than anything in life, I want to be:________________________________________________
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In addition to these five key areas of consideration, we can also consider some of the other elements of ourselves before constructing our mission statement.
What are my greatest strengths?
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What do others feel my greatest strengths are?
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If I could do anything in life and not worry about money, what would it be?
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What characteristics do I like most in other people?
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What (and/or who) makes me feel happy inside? Why?
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What is most important to me in life?
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If I could change the world, what things would I change?
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What are my greatest talents, skills and abilities?
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Who am I most important to in life? Who else?
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Before I die, I want to accomplish the following:
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Before I die, I want to do the following:</font?
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My most important values are:
(Among the myriad of values, a few are listed below to spur on your thinking.)
love friendship peace stability joy wisdom happiness knowledge independence serenity security passion adventure health fitness courage sex intimacy
(Many people confuse values with beliefs. Beliefs are not values. Beliefs follow values. Beliefs are accepted truths we hold about ourselves and the world around us. Some beliefs are limiting in nature while others are valuable for personal growth. We will discuss beliefs and values in much greater depth later.)
My most important values, in order are:
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MAPPING YOUR JOURNEY
Now, you are ready to design the first draft of your life-mission statement. A mission statement can be any length at all. It also should be noted that you will probably alter your mission statement, and, when you read the book, Life By Design, you will be given all of the keys to redesign your life! Many events occur in life that warrant a redesigning of our lives. As we design and later re-design our lives, it is important to be certain that who we truly are is a mirror image or our stated mission in life.
Being on a mission sets you in a general direction in life. Your life has a physical beginning and a physical ending. These two events can be marked as points on graph paper. The space between these two points is your time line. All other events in your life occur between these two points. Some people use arrows on the ends of their time lines to connote something similar to the concept of an eternal soul or spiritual life before and/or after physical life. It allows you to have the arrow on a piece of paper as a metaphor which represents the direction we are headed in life. The endless arrow can represent our “time line”. This line will then allow us to place goals in the future that we want to achieve as part of our mission. The arrow reminds us that goals are not an end, but stops along the way, on the time line of life.
Use all of the personal information above to write your personal life mission statement. The space available on the following page is where you will want to write this first draft. If you need extra space use a separate sheet of paper. This is your first draft only. After reading the entire book, you will write another life mission statement.
MY LIFE MISSION STATEMENT:
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Now that you have written your mission statement, be certain it truly represents your thoughts, wishes, and desires and not those of others. So many of us live our lives to please others. Helping others be happy is noble. Living to please the wishes of others is not noble and it is not a path for happiness and does not allow for life design.
Once a mission statement is in print, you have the ability to imagine that all the points on your life line are going to be an important part of your life mission. Problems that need to be overcome are critical to understanding your life mission. Setting goals that are congruent with your life mission is also a necessary and important facet to designing your future.
The time line below represents your life from the present, which is where you just concluded writing your personal life mission statement and moves toward an eternal “end.” You’ll also notice that we anticipate problems and we anticipate the accomplishment of our goals as we move into the future.
TIME LINE
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Present Problems Goals Goals Problems Goals Future
As you can see a life line has problems and goals along the way. Life is not simply about achieving goals. A great deal of our lives is spent solving problems. What kinds of problems occur in life that we can assume will happen along the way?
- People we love will die.
- People we love will grow to dislike us.
- People we care for will get hurt and face great problems.
- We will have financial setbacks on the way to financial stability.
- We will have accidents occur in life that we will be unprepared for.
- People we care for will become ill.
- We will become ill.
There are many more problems and traumas that will occur unexpectedly, and some will often appear to be placed unfairly before us. Some problems have easy solutions. Others are much more difficult. We will always face problems head on and never bury our head in the sand in hopes that they will go away.
In addition to problems we will have goals that we set and achieve. After each goal in life, there will be more problems to be solved and more goals to be achieved. Achieving goals will never stop. Overcoming life’s problems will never stop.
As we prepare to design our life, we can take into account the need to ready ourselves for setbacks as we have mentioned above. Those who are prepared will survive! Those who survive can achieve. Achievement is the fulfillment of goals, purposes and missions. Achievement of a life mission is not the absence of problems. There is never an absence of problems in life. In fact, if there were no problems in life, there would be no achievement possible at all.
Now that we have a basic understanding of our life mission we have provided an “easel” for the design of our life. We have a sense of direction as to where we are going in life. Now, it is helpful to give the reminder that our life mission statement can be revised at any time, and we will revise it again before this book is over!
For a full integration of your life’s journey and your mission, we recommend you order a copy of Life By Design on audiocassette. How you are going to meet the objectives in your life mission statement, on a step by step basis, will be explained there. For now, you have begun your journey!
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