Write Your Mission Statement

Many years ago I read a book by Stephen Covey, I remember his name but unfortunately not the title of his book.

From his book and teachings my wife and I decided to create our own mission statement. Over the years we have often referred to our hand written statement. It's helped us on a number of occasions to make difficult decisions at stressful times. One such time was when a friend offered to give our three daughters a lift to school. Initially we said yes, but later realized that our friend did not have seat belts in the back of her car, which was quite legal at the time.

That evening we consulted our mission statement and there it was in black and white:

“We will always put the safety of our girls first”

It was NOT an easy task telling our friend that we could not accept the offer, but it had to be done and we told her in full.

Create your own Mission Statement

All you need to do is to brainstorm and write down a list of beliefs, intentions or statements. Arrange them in order of priority, delete all the superfluous lines then sign at the bottom of the list. It's not that easy though, it may take you a few hours of discussion, especially for a couple.

The good news is that the statement can be changed at any time. If it’s a joint mission statement then both parties will need to agree to the changes.

Example Mission Statements:

For an individual.

I shall always put my health and safety first.

I will exercise for 30 minutes every day.

I will visit family once a month

I will take responsibility for my actions and I will not blame others.

I will stay within my budget.

I shall write a blog post every week.

I shall help someone every day at WA

For A Couple

We will always put the children’s safety first.

We shall look after each other in every way.

We will visit each others family once a week.

We will walk 30 minutes every day to stay fit.

We will stay within our budget.

We will treat others with respect.

Mission statements can be written for personal use as above, or for business use.

Write your own personal mission statement, it can be as long or short as you like, then SIGN AND DISPLAY IT in a private location.

Hope this gives you some ideas...