Making it plain
Research has shown that people who have a clear sense of purpose for their lives age better, generally live longer and are happier. Your purpose is actually the reason for your existence, the answer to the question “WHY AM I HERE?”. It’s one of the greatest discoveries you can make in life, a critical factor to living a truly fulfilled life. Myles Monroe once said, “if purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.” I am sure we all don’t want to live abused lives.
But more than knowing your purpose in life, writing it down takes it a step further. One concrete way to get crystal clear about the reason for your life is to have a Purpose Statement.
A Personal Purpose Statement also referred to as a personal mission statement makes plain what your life mission is, it shows clearly the important things in your life and helps to ensure that your decisions and actions align with the very reason you exist. It helps you to live daily with the end in mind.
We can easily understand the place and importance of a purpose statement when we look at some successful global brands. Take Google for example, Co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they clearly captured the purpose of the company in the statement “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It might have looked awkward the first day it was written or the first time they launched the search engine but today we all can testify that today, Google completely embodies this statement. That’s what a personal purpose statement can do for your life, once it is properly written, it will help you evolve into what it was originally made for.
So how can you write a purpose statement for your life, here are three tips I believe will help you.
- Your purpose statement must reflect your values
I shared in a previous article, the importance of Your Values? Your values constitute those things that are important to you. They tell us what you stand for, what you are passionate about and what drives you. You cannot disconnect your values from your reason for living so your purpose statement must reflect it.
- Your purpose statement must align with the vision of your life
The vision of your life is a clear picture of your desired outcome and future. Your life’s vision must be captured in your purpose statement. The Christian Bible puts it this way “Write the vision and make it plain… That he may run who reads it.” Habakkuk 2:2 – NLT
- Your purpose statement must be beyond you
Your life is not just about you. Every great individual we celebrate became successful by providing products and services that impact on the life of others. People like Nelson Mandela, Samuel Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and even Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh still hold great value to us because of what they have done for humanity. You can’t go far in life if all you do is about you. It must be beyond you and must reflect in your purpose statement.
Lastly, writing a purpose statement is not a day’s work. It might take you weeks and even months. When you write one, it is very okay to review and edit periodically to reflect your current understanding of your life’s mission. So create regular “Me Times” to reflect on your purpose statement. As Stephen Covey, author of the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” said; “Creating and integrating an empowering personal mission statement is one of the most important investments we can make.” I urge you to invest time today and start the process of articulating a compelling purpose statement for your life.
You have only One Life to Live, MAKE IT COUNT!
