A few months ago, I had this crazy idea to address four different arenas that are important to me: sports, business, Christian faith, and personal relationships. Each has improvement principles that have all had a profound impact on my life. The idea was to bring forward the lessons and principles I have learned from each area, figure out what these areas all had in common, and the final piece would be to create a personal life blueprint; a mission statement.
That has been a challenge. Do you ever have this great idea in your head, and then once you embark on the idea, you realize it’s much more challenging than you expected? I have spent the past three hours reviewing the previous eight posts. I have been doing what I said I would do when I first started this series. I’ve been studying each installment, writing down the key takeaways and values from each one and looking for the common threads that run through the four areas.
It’s been quite the undertaking. My original thought was: “Wouldn’t this make for a great book?” Now my thinking, as I do this last post on this series, is: while it’s made for a great discussion, not so sure for a book. I’m just being brutally honest. I tell you all the time, try something new, get out of your comfort zone. Well, I tell myself this all the time too. I was telling myself: “Stretch yourself Monette.” Truly this series has really stretched and grown me. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve done research and put more facts in each of my posts. I’m my own worst critic, when I go back and review some of the posts on this series, I can tell when I’m presenting facts, or a story for which I did research, rather than it being my personal story. I actually don’t like it! It seems canned, not fluid. I’m just giving you some backstory here; this series stretched me. And finally, now, I am excited to share my conclusions.
Again, I believe God has given us this thinking brain, as an incredible tool. My original idea of what if we create a personal mission statement, a blueprint, a written moral compass to use, we can use to hold ourselves accountable. Businesses do it all the time! That is exactly the intention of this series. I have literally walked you through the process. I am going to recap the process in hopes you make this a personal project for yourself! Again, for me I took four areas that have had a profound effect on me.
Four Areas
Your four areas that have had the most influence on you may be completely different to mine. But that is the first step in this process. You pick your four areas. Write out for each of these areas the values you admire in each area; the values you see that stand out to you. Similar to what you’ve seen me do here. For me, after reviewing all eight sessions for this series, I got out a notebook created a page for each area. Then, I went back through each and pulled out the takeaways; the values that stood out to me in each of these areas. I wrote them down.
The next step was to study each page that corresponded with each area: sports, business, Christian faith and personal relationships. Then, I circled the strongest values that resonated for me. I found the top 5! I then went back and found the values that didn’t make the top five and put a square around them. Again, this is an exercise that will help you learn about you. It will be an exercise to help you in developing your own personal blueprint. I feel if you invest the time and use this exercise that I’m sharing with you, and create your own personal blueprint, it will bring clarity to your life like you’ve never experienced before! It will give you an incredible decision-making tool!
Have you ever asked the question: “What is life and why am I here?” What we are exploring right now are your thoughts and your values. Then organizing them like they have never been organized before. I’m giving you a practical exercise; a new tool! I hope you will accept the challenge!
Five Core Values
The next step is taking those top 5 core values that you picked and the second tier of values and now you are ready to create your personal mission statement; your personal blueprint!
I’ll share my top 5 core values and my second tier values. Here they are! Faith, Shared Vision, Continuous Learning, Discipline and Resilience! My second tier values are commitment, integrity, trustworthiness, humility, empathy, mutual respect, loyalty and servant leadership.
Again, I took the top four areas that have had the most influence in my life, found the consistent threads of values in each of those four areas. Remember, if you choose to accept this challenge, your four areas will be probably different than mine. Pick your top four. This is your personal, unique project.
I’m going to talk a little bit about my top five core values, my five main pillars that stood out the most for me and give you a little summary of each. And then I will give you my personal blueprint; my mission statement for my life.
Faith
The first core value is faith! I have frequently shared, I am a Bible believing Christian. My faith is my first pillar. It’s how I make decisions. As a believer I have the Bible and the Holy Spirit that gives me discernment.
Shared Vision
My next core value is shared vision! Looking at the four areas, sports, business, Christian faith and personal relationships, and studying them I feel they are all dead in the water without the value of a shared vision.
Continuous Learning
My third pillar/core value is continuous learning. This goes hand in hand with a question a significant mentor of mine, Dan Sullivan, a strategic business coach, asks: “Is your future bigger than your past?” In answering this question, continuous learning is key!
Discipline
The next pillar/core value is discipline. This is my action value!
Resilience
The last one that made the top five is resilience. Another word for resilience is perseverance! Never quitting, never giving up; getting through obstacles!
I am now going to give you my second tier of values, that didn’t make the top five, but are also very valuable—as you will hear when I share my personal life blueprint. In no particular order, they are: commitment, integrity, trustworthiness, humility, empathy, mutual respect, loyalty, and servant leadership.
Doing this series and creating this tool has given me incredible clarity moving forward in life. I want this for you! Having a personal, moral compass; a standard by which to make decisions offers great discernment on the “who, what, where, when and how” decisions in our life. We all make decisions on where we will put our time, attention and effort. Now, you can ask yourself: “Does it align with my personal life blueprint; my mission statement?”
My Personal Life Blueprint
So, here is my personal life blueprint. My hope is that you create one for yourself.
“I am committed to living a life rooted in faith, shared vision, continuous learning, discipline, and resilience. Guided by these core values, I strive to embody integrity, trustworthiness, humility, empathy, mutual respect, loyalty, and servant leadership in all I do. My mission is to make a positive impact in the lives of others through meaningful connections and to focus on personal and professional development. I aim to inspire and empower others to reach their full potential while pursuing my God-given passions and goals.”
Now it’s your turn! I encourage you to take this challenge for yourself. For me, this topic has taken the most thinking time and has been the most challenging. But the beauty of creating a personal life blueprint/ mission statement makes it all worth it. The clarity it brings is so worth your time and effort. And it’s mine. I can change it, tweak it and rework it if I need to. It has organized so many thoughts with which I have wrestled. Now, I know why some relationships or collaborations didn’t work out. I can see more clearly that in some way we did not align with one another’s values or shared vision. The freedom this brings is unbelievable. I challenge you to do this exercise; use this thinking tool. Create your own personal blueprint/mission statement!
Monette hosts a weekly podcast: Mornings with Monette. She has been a lifelong learner and and appreciates the opportunity to share what she has learned–both through her podcast and here at The Best-Life Project (based on the content of her weekly podcast). Her messages are raw, honest and straight from the heart. She lives in Albuquerque, NM with her husband Leland. They have three adult children and are enjoying living their best lives filled with travel and adventure.