Why Have a Mission Statement and Vision Statement?

Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer, and foremost American pioneer of modern dance once wrote, “Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.” We have all at one time or another lost the focus of our intention for our life, our work, or our goals. Time goes by and some of us are reminded that we did at one time have dreams, we did have the time to achieve our desired future. But we did not get to that desired future. Given time we will remember a host of plausible reasons for having missed “the mark.”

Not so, for others it seems. They saw their mission and their vision for the future and kept to their desired path. Sometimes that path took what would appear as a step, or even a few, backwards –a tactical shift in their career that ultimately provided confidence for other successes that were to come. What kept them on focus was a mission statement that clearly stated their reason for existence – their true purpose in life. What kept them going and energized each and every day was a vision of their desired future. By working with their mission and vision statements, and doing it often, they were able to develop goals which they wrote down.

The writing, repetitive reading and focus on your mission statement and vision statement will help you determine more clearly your HOW – how will you accomplish your true purpose and your desired future? Once you have your key mission and vision statements defined, break down each statement into its various sentences and phrases. Look at each sentence and phrase to help you think of strategic activities that you can implement and if achieved, would advance you to some goal that would tell you that you have achieved that particular part of your mission statement or vision statement. Repetitive thinking and focus on your mission statement and vision statement will allow the “how to do it” to become more open to you and the more you do it, the more strategic ideas and actions will flow to you.

What better reason to have a mission statement and vision statement – to lay the foundation for a path to your true purpose and desired future. What’s your reason to have a mission statement and vision statement? Need help with your statements? To learn more about mission and vision statements and a site with resources to help you, go to www.missionvisionstatement.com now. There you will find a website dedicated to mission and vision statements and how to use them to produce meaningful and lasting change.