Crafting Your Personal Purpose Statement #missionstatement #vision

Now as we consider the progress we're desiring to make and the goals that we've discussed, it's important to think next about what kind of processes and procedures we can implement to facilitate an ongoing improvement and consistent sustainable growth. Development of a personal purpose statement can and wields significant direction and strength, not to mention the reminder it can provide considering appropriate placement in a Although good work on and to endeavor to improve, constant reliance on memory can lead to frequent forgetting. Making an effort to record and then review will be a great assistance in continuing reaffirmation of your individual purpose statement. Now the process of creation can be a challenge, from the first step of getting the boulder to begin to budge, to guiding the roll of the stone to its desired place, to settling it, adjusting it, and then focusing on it periodically and all that that represents. This creative process should be intentional and exceptionally exclusive. We have to keep things centered on purpose and values. The exclusive nature of our purpose statement will allow us to maintain a certain level of specificity with regard to what it is that we're wanting to focus on, improve upon, and consistently center upon, including, if we include, overbroad or generic statements that can prove to be less than helpful, even bringing some of the drive for focus on a purpose-centered and value-centered life to its knees. Each of us has been inculcated with a worldview that is a function of our previous lived life experience, absorbed external influences, and personal thought processes and choices. These worldviews are largely invisible to us, much like the windshield through which we see as we drive down the road is largely unseen by the driver. Worldviews, sometimes referred to as our paradigm or our lens, provide an immensely influential direction and guidance in our choice and our choice processes, but all from a totally unseen source. We can be manipulated, or perhaps I should say that we are constantly manipulated by our worldviews as we move throughout our life, seeing, evaluating, making choices through this lens. It's important to note that this manipulation can be referred to as adjustment or influence, and is oftentimes a positive influence. I think just being aware of our personal worldviews can be a source of great power to us personally, as it allows us a deeper analysis of our individual choices and directions. As we continue, the discussion of an individual purpose statement is absolutely critical that the vision be centered on a purpose and founded on values which originate from a personal individual identity. Although a deeper discussion can be done elsewhere, let's discuss an example. If we take the purpose statement, I like flowers, it seems to only convey the liking of flowers. Imagine the author of that statement intended to convey a love for and a desire to enjoy the beauty of God's creations. With that in mind, the statement could be adjusted to more clearly say, I take time to enjoy the beauty of God's creations. Certainly, additional data could follow and multiple statements can be stacked on top of each other depending upon the individual's goals and purpose. Inclusion of an identity statement should be considered as the purpose statement is created. Now, I would suggest caution when considering this section. Currently, in the world that we live on and the world wide web that we live in, the word identity has various meanings. My purpose here is not to make a statement as to what those meanings are, but rather to suggest that you consider your identity, that you evaluate your identity on a durable level. Personal identity and how we view ourselves is so often modulated, manipulated, adjusted, edited, etc., etc., not only by ourselves and our peers, but by our worldview, that lens through which we observe the world. As we've discussed briefly, that worldview is so often modulated, adjusted, and edited itself by the media that we consume, from print media, to video media, to audio media, music media, etc. For some of us, worldview, our worldview is entirely contrived by our consumption of media and what we see out there happening to or projected by other people. Many of us don't really come to solid understanding as to who we are in a deep way until we have several decades of lived experience and have absorbed a tremendous amount of external information. Oftentimes, we rely way too heavily on a peer group for input as to who we are. I would suggest to you that our personal identity is already within us, but it is too often covered or buried deeply within us, and now falls on our shoulders to discover who we are, or more correctly, to uncover who we are. This, in my personal experience and opinion, requires a reliance on a personal connection to eternity and to God. Establishing and utilizing this type of connection can bring great strength over time and solidify and clarify who we are from an endless and eternal standpoint, rather than being subject to what might be popular in the common media or in our group of friends, etc. etc. So, it's helpful to make sure to connect with our divinity and evaluate and establish and reconfirm and clarify your identity as you work through your purpose statement. Inclusion of a specific statement referencing identity will bring great strength as you review it regularly.