Another take on goal setting

Businesses and organisations that seek to be successful and professional generally have a mission statement. If they have a policy and procedure manual, I've no doubt that when they developed it, they started with a mission statement. I've worked where there has been attention to this. During those times, I was pretty cynical and failed to see the relevance. There was rebellion in me for being forced to comply to an extent. 

A couple of years ago, I had a revelation about the purpose of a mission statement. It certainly is a GOAL.

Today, I have decided to do some research on some corporate missions statements. I'll state here and now that neither were as easy to find as I'd expected. 

WAL-MART
"Our mission is to enhance and integrate our supplier diversity programs into all of our procurement practices and to be an advocate for minority and women owned businesses"

OK. So cool! Wal-Mart has a mission statement. I don't know about you, but I suspect that the average Joe in the street would have trouble fully understanding what this means. For me, I have a vague idea that is has something to do with promoting women, other than that and without research on the true meaning of the words, it's nothing short of corporate speak gobbledegook! I'd suggest it could do with a makeover by rewording to more simple language. 

Lets take a look at another.

The online store AMAZON
"Our vision is to be earth's' most customer centric company, to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online"

This one is much easier to understand. Aside of the word "centric" I'd say that the wording is clear and easy to understand for anybody. 

A lack of understanding of a mission statement can cause the workforce to have a lack of direction, purpose and motivation. Individuals (particularly managers) can be in danger of focussing to much upon day to day running, reports, procedures and box ticking exercises. These are of course important, but may not necessarily have a conscious and subconscious link to the foundations of a clear mission statement. 


So referring back to goals, we can choose to apply a personal mission statement to our lives. This will give us, purpose, motivation, direction and energy. It will also build self confidence and self esteem. 

• Do you have a personal mission statement?

• If so, can you write it down in language that you and others understand?

If you do this, I'm suggesting that you will discover a life goal. I challenge you to work out what you life mission is and to develop a statement for it. Once you have done this, check to see if your current goals are compatible with your mission statement. Don't worry if they are not. Goals can be a "work in progress". In other words, they can be amended and don't have to be the final product. You can choose to fine tweak them.


Now in order to practice this for myself, I'm going to write a draft personal mission statement.


"To live a life of joy and purpose. To continue to learn to accept, respect and be kind to myself so that I can successfully accept, respect and be kind to others. To Motivate, Encourage, Empower and Trust others. To enjoy the gift of humour and to laugh often by not taking myself too seriously. To recognise that all aspect of life have natural balance; so allow nature to perform that balance".


Hmmmm. That's a start. 


Over to you folks, if you choose to do the same. 

P.s. (an add on to this blog an hour or so after publishing)
Just for fun, check out this site Plain English Campaign and play with the gobbledegook generator. Very funny!