Self Awareness Practice: Drafting Your Personal Mission Statement

  The "Habits of Highly Effective People" course had many life changing lessons and tips on how to change your thinking to produce a better and more effective life for yourself. I find myself revisiting my handbook often to keep myself motivated and on the right course. A take away that I hadn't yet shared with you all is "Drafting Your Personal Mission Statement." An exercise from Habit 2, the concept of 'Beginning With the End in Mind', or envisioning outcomes before action. 

A Personal Mission Statement is meant to:

Clarify what's important to you

Provide focus

Help design your life instead of having it designed for you

Guide your day to day decisions

Give you a greater sense of meaning and purpose

Below is the result of writing for five minutes without stopping; the Personal Mission Statement that I came up with back in October while enrolled in the course:

"I want to be remembered. A hero even if it's a personal one. I want people to be happy when they think of me. To be motivated. To smile. To feel like they can reach their goals/ dreams because of the life I lead. I want to paint write fall in love travel have a beautiful family. I want to feel free completely and know that I did it right. I did it my way. Life is beautiful and I want to go to bed every night feeling that way rich vibrant colors living in a different country eat foods full of culture that tell a story. Boats planes mountains animals trees trains oceans sunsets discover create beauty inspire write a book share my thoughts with the world and even if they only reach one person I want them to reach that person. Find the most passionate of all loves and renew it everyday."

It's a very eye-opening thing to be asked how you want to be remembered. Once you decide what you want your legacy to be it will have a strong impact on how you begin to live your day to day life. You will begin to live with that "end result" in mind.


Pick up the book here:






( SIDE NOTE: Personal Mission Statements can and will change as you grow through life. I plan to continue to add to mine until it perfectly reflects who I am/ want to be. )

Circle of Influence (things you can affect directly) vs. Circle of Concern (things you care about) 

This was one of my favorite takeaways from the course ( 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ). To put it simply it's the concept of reframing your thinking to focus on the things that you can influence/ control, thereby expanding experience, knowledge and building trustworthiness in yourself. This causes the Circle of Influence to grow. 

Some examples would be: your happiness, your choices, the people you allow in your space, how you respond to the way people treat you, the time you choose to leave your house when there is a deadline/ your route taken.

When people use their time and energy to focus on the Circle of Concern, or areas in life that are ultimately uncontrollable their circle of influence shrinks. 

Some examples would be: a delayed flight, how others treat you, your upbringing, traffic, job security and other peoples weaknesses.


It can also be described as Proactive vs. Reactive focus.

For the last three days I've been on the path to enlightenment with the amazing life course, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" leading the way. The course normally costs thousands of dollars, (I was lucky enough to be able to attend for free through my job) and I can see why. It truly was eye-opening to learn different ways/ habits to expand your paradigm and begin living a truly fulfilling life. I'll post some of my favorite lessons from the course in the next few days. 

Happy Friday!