My Personal Mission Statement

source

In December of last year, I began working on a personal development challenge called The 31 Days to Reset Your Life Challenge. Rosetta Thurman at the Happy Black Woman blog instituted this recurring challenge on her blog for "..anyone who wants to manifest a change in their life or simply gain more clarity about their path to happiness and success."

While I am not normally someone who favors these types of challenges, I dug into this one with gusto. I was at a point, I think, where I knew there was some self-discovery that needed to be done and this was a way to be guided to do the work. I fell behind on said work a few times...and eventually stalled on the challenge around day 14, yet, I gained some very valuable little nuggets of information about myself, my values and how I act upon those values.

Through the activity on Day 4, envisioning your values in action, I was led to create my daily habits list (which I shared here a few weeks ago), and I've been able to affect change just by being constantly present with myself, and consistently aware of when my actions are of benefit to me versus when I am engaging in self-sabotaging behavior.

And on Day 5 of the challenge, I created my personal mission statement, as tasked; and I might venture to say this was my favorite exercise. It was a beautiful way to set the intention for my life--kind of like writing a love letter to myself. I hadn't necessarily intended for anyone else to see this...but here goes:

My Personal Mission Statement

I value love, family, friendships, spiritual and physical health, financial abundance and freedom, and a sense of achievement. I deeply value honesty, loyalty and authenticity in myself and everyone around me. I appreciate girl time, sweet wine, good books, travel and beautiful trinkets.

I believe in the benefit of environmentally conscious behavior, support of local farmers and growers, and consumption of fresh organic and locally grown foods that are free from chemicals.

I have been blessed with the gift of communication and intend to use the written, spoken and sung word in a way that is refreshing, honest and freeing--both for myself and others. I specifically want to aid young women and girls in loving themselves and their journeys, armed early with knowledge and lessons that I learned in a more difficult, arduous way.

In my work and in my life, I will always push past the fear and do exactly what my ego is fearful of, because this is how I capitalize on my opportunities. I will push myself past the limits of what I know I can do to conquer those things I have never done before.

I will continue to be a patient, loving and dedicated mother and one day soon, I will be all these things in a wife as well.

I will always choose love over fear, forgiveness over pain and high high heels over flats.

If you could set the intention for any kind of life you wanted, right here and right now--just by writing it down--what would you write? What do you value and how will you put these values into action?