Here’s my Personal Mission Statement

Among the books that have had the most influence on my life to this point, I would quote without hesitation The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. More than just being inspirational and well written, this book drove quite a lot of change to my daily life. One of the key takeaways from it is the importance of writing and living by a Personal Mission Statement. And that’s what I’d like to dive into, in today’s post.

What is a Personal Mission Statement?

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey considers our daily lives to be revolving around one center. In his words:

« Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power. » — Stephen R. Covey

He argues that, we were all handed a set of maps and filters to see the world, in our childhood. These maps are the ones dictating our actions and reactions in our everyday lives. For example, if you’re a pleasure-centered person, you’ll look for opportunities to find pleasure and fulfill your desired, but get very annoyed at things that don’t. Same if you are a money-centered or spouse-centered person, your center will influence the way every situation in your life impacts your mood, your decisions, and your sense of self-worth.

But, according to the author, we have the power to change that, to create our own set of maps, in the form of a Personal Mission Statement. Simply enough, a Personal Mission Statement is, as the name suggests, a personal constitution, a map of your design, allowing you to be the leader of your own life. It’s a way to put what you value the most in the center, too begin with the end in mind.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Let your intuition guide you. You are what you've been looking for.

Here’s My Personal Mission Statement

When I finished reading the book for the first time back in the summer of 2018, I had some time to reflect on my values, my priorities, and my ideas of a perfect life. I did a personal introspection and, to be honest, I wrote quite a lot that summer! But, influenced by all the other texts and reflections, the most important one came in the form of my Personal Mission Statement, which I would like to finally share with you today.

I live to learn and to create.

Whether from books, from movies, people, or experiences, I breathe to discover the world. I shall then build my daily life accordingly in order to be constantly surrounded by learning material.

Whether by writing, speaking, coding, shooting pictures, or videos, I live to share and to create from what I learn. I want to create emotions and share knowledge with the world. I shall then make sure I feed my creativity by exercising it every day.

In order to live a happy and fulfilled life, I want to never stop creating and especially to never stop learning.

I’ve been reciting it in my head pretty much every morning since September 2018 and this text has influenced many moments of my life. Whenever I felt in doubt about some decisions to take, I could rely on it, see how it aligned with my values: « will it teach me something or help me to create? ».

To some extent, it made me realize that I was responsible for the choices I make in my life and it lead me to slowly start leading a life of my own design, lead by my own priorities. In many ways, it made me start putting areas like the blog, newsletter, or even travel first, and paved the way for an actual fulfilled life, with growing opportunities and moments of joy, while creating or learning.

Updates to come

Yet my life has evolved quite a lot since 2018. I learned so much, I grew so much. And without changing the core behind it, I would like to reflect all of these changes into my Personal Mission Statement in the course of the upcoming weeks, maybe months. If I do, be sure I'll keep you updated, when the time will be right.

Let’s chat

Thank you for reading this post and I hope that you could take something out of it! Now I would love to know, what is the most important thing for you in this life? And what would you like to prioritize more?

Let me also know in the comments if you’d like me to dive more into Personal Mission Statements and my interesting findings in this book.