exercises until you come to a firm YES, “by any means necessary” response to question two. Part of doing whatever it takes is completing ALL the exercises in this book. I may be smiling…but I’m serious! If your why doesn’t impel you to complete these exercises, then it is not strong enough to deal with all the struggles of developing the career of your dreams. Once you have a strong one, then write your WHY down in a concise statement.
Develop a Personal Mission Statement
Once you have developed your WHAT and WHY statements, you must now engrave them in your heart and mind. That is why we are going to turn it into a personal mission statement. I am not talking about something grand, just 1-2 sentences that clearly articulate what you want and the primary motivating factor behind it.
Simply put the two statements you made above into a short paragraph. For example:
I must put a smile on my mother’s face and become a role model for my lil brother. It is up to me. I am the one in the family that must succeed.
You don’t have to have anything “deep” or “powerful.” It is all about what moves YOU. If your WHAT is a realistic goal that you can accomplish in life and your WHY is strong, then you have a personal mission statement. Another example,
I am an environmental activist because I am tired of seeing kids suffer from diseases caused by pollution.
OR
I witnessed my mother go through a bad marriage. I will become a family and marriage counselor to ensure that no one else have to go through what she and I went through.
Write this down and put it where you can see it every day. Create a vision board. Infuse it into something in your life. For example, my mother’s personal mission statement was:
I must go to college and become successful to create a better life for my children.
Seeing her children every day reminded her of that mission.
Another point: you need a personal story behind that mission statement. The heart of your story lies within your WHAT and WHY. I really want to emphasize this point because once you identify your WHY, it will give you the motivation to figure out the WHAT and HOW. You won’t need anything else. If you have a strong enough WHY, nothing will stop you, not even yourself. Take the time to figure out a clear idea of what you want and a very strong WHY you want it.
Here is a bad example of this exercise that most people will do.
I want to go to college to get a job, so I can take care of myself.
Now, if you have been homeless, abused in the foster care system, or been seriously hurt by not being able to take care of yourself then this may be a strong enough personal mission statement. However, if it is nothing that serious then this statement is childish, petty, and basic. Why? First, you don’t need to go to college to get a job. Second, there is no specificity on the job. A goal like this leaves it open to getting any type of job, even one at a fast food restaurant. Third, the mission is selfish. WHYs are stronger when connected to others, something bigger than your own immediate wants.
Another example is:
I want to make a difference in this world.
I want to put a smile on my children’s faces.
I want to make my parents proud.
These are all weak mission statements because they don’t have a specific WHAT and, therefore, are pretty easy to accomplish. You can make a difference in this world by engraving your name on a freshly cemented sidewalk. You can play with your kids and see them smile. You can also do one thing to make your parents proud now.
Your personal mission statement must grow you into something that affects you now. It must be something specific that you can accomplish so there isn’t any question that the mission is complete! If you shoot for the stars and slip up, then you will probably end up on the moon. If you really slip up, at least you will be in the sky. The point is you won’t be on Earth with a bitter and broken fear to even look to the heavens. Shoot high!
I strongly encourage you to ALWAYS identify WHAT you want out of ANY situation and WHY you want it.
Exercise F1.3 – Create a Personal Mission Statement
Review your completed answers to Exercises 1.1 and 1.2. Combine them into 2-3 sentences that inspire you to get to work. When you write down those sentences you should feel a stirring inside: a pull, a yearning to accomplish what you write. If you do not feel it the first time, reword, rethink how you want to combine your WHAT and WHY. The final mission statement may not be an exact combination of your WHAT and WHY, but it should move you. Give yourself a week to hone your personal mission statement.
Once you have your personal mission statement completed, put it where you can see it daily. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Put it in your phone. Make or purchase something that symbolizes it and keep it on you or around you. Take the object and infuse it with the idea behind the mission statement. Be creative and put it where YOU know it will be a constant reminder of what you must do.
Determine Your Course: Career Planning
You may be asking yourself why is there a section on career planning in a book about school? At the end of the day, the reason you are investing your time and money into school is to learn something that will help develop your career. You are looking to be certified and apply what you learned to a job that will give you a long-standing return on your investment. Essentially, you are preparing yourself for your next step. Getting an idea of what your next step will be is crucial to ensuring that you are investing your time and money properly.
Know Yourself
Identifying a career starts with you.
1.What are your interests?
2.What are your skills?
3.What type of environment do you want to work in?
Going to school just to get a job, a better job, or any job is one of the worst decisions you can make in life. According to a 2012 article in The Atlantic, 53 percent of college graduates are either jobless or underemployed1. Therefore, if your goal is to just get a job or a better job then you have 50/50 chance of making that happen, even after four years of school.
If you attend school just to get away from your family and get a job, you will most likely spend a lot of money and waste a lot of time doing something that does not improve your life. The chances of you working a job you dread going to five out of the seven days of your week will be high. If you think about it, you’ve seen people who love what they do come home disgusted on occasion, although it’s nowhere near the agony of people who hate what they do in general. If it is guaranteed that you will get annoyed from time to time in your career anyway, why not make it about something that you are inspired by and willing to fight for?
Get paid to do what you love.
Think about how you choose your mate. Relationships require a lot of work. Whoever you deal with is bound to irritate you at some point. Yet we pick the person who gives us more of what we want and in turn we deal with their negative traits.
Use the same logic with your career: go for what you love.
Doing
