Time Management Part 1 – Begin with the End in Mind

Creating a Personal Mission Statement

One of the habits of highly effective people that Steven Covey mentions in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is that of beginning with the end in mind. In order to begin with the end in mind it is important to create a personal mission statement and to be able to clearly visualize this mission. In this article we look at how you can create your own personal mission statement.

Considering What You Really Want

Creating a personal mission statement begins by considering what is it that you really want in life – what do you want to achieve in life, where do you want to go, what do you want to do? By answering some of these questions and forming clear pictures of these things that you really want you are able to start thinking about the types of things that your personal mission statement should include.

Thinking about the End

Before creating your personal mission statement start by writing down what you would like people to say about you at your 100th/80th birthday, what you want people to say about you at your funeral and what you want written on your epitaph. By thinking about these things you are able to consider how you want to be remembered, what type of relationships you want to have in your life, and what you want to have achieved in the eyes of others. All of these are important aspects to include in your personal mission statement.

What Should You Include when Creating Your Personal Mission Statement

What elements should you include when creating your personal mission statement? After you have done some of the exercises mentioned above you should already have a pretty good idea of what you want to include in your mission statement, but it is important to look at all areas of your life – social, emotional, physical, creative, spiritual, etc. It should include all that you want to achieve as well as the type of person that you want to be.

Creating a Personal Mission Statement and a Vision

When looking at the above exercises and elements that can be used when creating a personal mission statement we have really been putting together a personal vision. Your personal vision is a paragraph or paragraphs which explain all that you want to achieve in as much detail as possible for clear visualization. A personal mission statement takes the personal vision you have created above and reduces this to one or two sentences that can easily be remembered. Your personal mission statement should be short and meaningful and so should be carefully thought out in order to contain all that you have considered in the above exercises as well as being easy to remember.

Using a Personal Mission Statement and Vision to Aid Visualization

The importance of a personal mission statement and vision is that they enable you to more clearly and accurately visualize what it is you want to achieve. Once you have created your personal mission statement and vision, read through it regularly in order to keep your goals clearly in mind and have a picture of what you want to be in the end.

Beginning with the end in mind, one of the habits of highly effective people, includes creating a personal mission statement and vision. A personal mission statement is one or two sentences which summarizes what you have in your personal vision. Your personal vision can be created by thinking about what it is you really desire, where you want to go, what you want to achieve and what you want people to say about you at the end of your life. Creating a personal mission statement is an important tool in the visualization of your goals.