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Are Mission Statements / Visualizations All You Need To Be Successful?
There has been a spate of writing in the Blog world recently about visualization and mission statements.
And when I say a lot of posting, I mean a lot of stinking mission statement posts.
There’s even an online personal mission statement builder out there.
So, is this all you really need to be successful in your life / career? A happy statement about what you want to be / do / become?
Difficult Dan, while he hates to pop everyone’s shiny, happy bubble, still says, “NO! Get a life! You’re going to need more that that!”
Read on to find out why I’m being so difficult today…
THE VALUE OF PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENTS
So, okay….before I become completely cantankerous, contrarian, and contentious, I’m not saying that personal mission statements / visualizations are bad.
In fact, back in the old days, these are what we called “goals”. Or, if we were less highfallutin’, we’d call ‘em, “Not wandering around aimlessly for your whole life”.
Mission statements / goals are good things to have around. If they’re specific enough to be useful.
Having a personal mission statement of, “I’m going to be a nice person, reminding everyone I meet of candy canes and rainbows” really doesn’t help anyone.
A personal mission statement that states, “I will earn $100,000 in the year 2008″ is a good start, but then you’ve got to create specific tactics to get that done.
Which brings me to my main problem with personal mission statements:
HAVING PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENTS WON’T MATTER IF YOU’RE A SLOTHFUL, LAZY SLUG!
Let’s be honest: if you’re afraid of a little hard work and spend more time and energy avoiding work and covering up your lack of work than actually working, a personal mission statement isn’t going to help you.
A personal mission statement is going to be useful to the guy who has used all his time wisely, made sure that he is as productive as possible, and is out of ways to improve.
It’s sort of like self-esteem. Kids graduating from High School in America today have some of the highest self-esteem ratings in the world. For instance, in math, American kids are way more confident in their abilities than Japanese and Korean kids. The problem is that when it comes to actual math abilities, the Korean and Japanese kids wipe the floor with the American kids.
So, these kids go throughout their lives thinking, “I’m good at math! No problem!” Unfortunately, they’re only good at wrong math. So, did the self-esteem help them? It actually did the opposite.
Similarly, someone who isn’t making the most of their time already will only use a personal mission statement to avoid work / duties / responsibilities (as in, “No, I can’t take that job. It doesn’t fit with my personal mission statement.”) But he won’t take on extra work / duties / responsibilities in order to actually achieve his personal mission statement.
A BETTER PATH TO PERSONAL & CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Instead, think about personal mission statements like high-tech, high-end, expensive golf clubs. They may make you feel like a (poorer) stud, but until your game is good, they won’t matter much.
Instead of starting with your Big Bertha $900 driver, why not get some cheap clubs and do more practice of the basics and work your way up to Bertha?
Starting from scratch, here are the steps that I would recommend:
Start with Scheduling - Just setting aside certain times where you’re do certain tasks. It doesn’t have to be to-the-minute - just a guideline that will get you focusing your effort a little.
Try Time Management - After you have a schedule working for you, now implement a little time management. Prioritize the items on your schedule to make sure that you’re working on the most important stuff most of the time.
Time / Task Value Analysis - Once you’re doing the most important tasks most of the time, now it’s time to evaluate what is truly important. Figure out what the actual dollars-and-cents value is of the tasks that you do and compare that with what you make / want to make. Cut out tasks below your desired value level.
Prioritizing Personal Stuff - Around this time, you’ll decide that spending time with your family is pleasant, but doesn’t have a high monetary value. This is when you’ll remember that there are some things more important than money and you’ll actively schedule “family only” time so that you don’t end up setting goals alone in a folding chair, the only piece of sitting furniture in your one-bedroom apartment.
Milestoning - It’s great to know what you’re going to do with your time, but if you constantly are sitting down with a task and wondering what to do next, that’s a huge waste of time. In milestoning, whenever you list a “To Do”, you also take some extra time to break it down into smaller milestones. In this way, you have small achievement points and always know exactly what to do next.
Time Chunking - The most successful people I know have taken their time management to a HNL by setting small units of time (15 minutes is common) in which they determine to get to the next milestone on a task.
Full Time Utilization - Eventually, you’ll get to a spot where your time is completely used up for productive (or planned non-productive) things. Full Time Utilization is the ultimate goal of any time management. If you’re managing your time well AND get to full time utilization, you are at peak productivity.
Personal Mission Statements / Goals - One of the last stages in being productive is to determine what specific direction you want to go in. NOW is the time to build a personal mission statement to determine the end-point you should be shooting for. Once you’ve done this, you can go back into your time management and move out items that aren’t moving your toward your higher goals and move in items that do.
Are you at peak productivity? Then go for the personal mission statement. Otherwise, start working your way up the productivity tree at the lowest branches.
Enjoy the Search!
Dan
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Daniel R. Sweet
Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Technical Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
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September 19th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Hey Dan. If I’m understanding you correctly, I have to respectfully disagree with the statement, “Are you at peak productivity? Then go for the personal mission statement. Otherwise, start working your way up the productivity tree at the lowest branches.”
A personal mission statement is about deciding what you want to accomplish, who you want to be, and how you want to get there. That should come before aiming to accomplish as much as possible, right?
Seems like we have a different understanding of what such a statement is purposed for.
September 20th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Chuck,
We agree on what a personal mission statement is about. So, at least we have that, right?
However, a personal mission statement is effectively useless unless you’re a “man of action” and are motivated to make things happen.
As you undoubtedly know, working on your personal mission statement is hard, hard work. You’re going against the flow. You’re working against entropy. You’re pushing back against most of the natural forces of the universe.
There are a lot of folks out there who want to sit back, punch a clock, and have greatness arrive in an e-mail. Preferrably an e-mail that doesn’t require a reply, because - you know - they’re pretty busy with their latte and all…
That’s why I say that unless you’re committed to making the most of your time, you might as well be writing your personal mission statement in the foam of that latte.
Dan