Defining Your Mission Part 1

Teammates, on the last blog I defined what a mission is, on this blog I want to define YOUR mission. Let me be clear – I have no intention of defining your specific mission because I can’t – only you can. My hope is to challenge you with some questions – and your ability to honestly seek the answers will directly help you define YOUR mission.

First, a quick recap on the definition of mission:
• a mission is a purpose-driven goal
• a goal is a dream with a deadline

So how do you sort through the goals that are worth “dying-for” and the goals that are “nice to have”? There’s no right answer here, but I can tell you from experience that there are two kinds of goals out there – there are the nice-to-have superficial ones and then there are the ones that will define you and your character – they’re big, scary and hairy and will leave you doubting yourself until you start to try. My question to you is:

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Answer this one slowly – take some serious time to dream – look inside yourself and ask honestly, what would I do if I knew I wouldn’t fail at whatever I tried…then ask yourself that again…and then again and again. The true answer won’t come immediately – you’ll have to sort through the superficial ones first – like having a billion dollar bank account or a private jet, but the ones that will start to percolate to the surface are ones that have a deeper meaning to you – they’re the ones that have a purpose. Sometimes, actually most times, that purpose doesn’t immediately connect with you.

You’ll have to journey a bit down the planning path of a couple of your dreams, but the sooner you learn to connect a purpose to your goal, the sooner you’ll stop viewing work as a “9 to 5” job and start seeing work as an opportunity to excel beyond what is currently possible or even what some may consider acceptable.

Huh?

Stay with me here – you see most folks get caught up very early in life in the game of earning money as the ultimate reward. No doubt, having money opens doors to new possibilities, but for most, we end up chasing a never ending rainbow of superficial stuff – cars, boats, houses, jewelry, etcetera and get stuck in a vicious cycle of: “I work because I owe, and owe because I work” (and btw I’m as guilty as the next guy for coveting different “superficial things”), but the trick is to earn these things doing what you love, not doing what you “have” to do to continue make payments on the things you’ve wanted. Once you get ‘stuck’ on the car, house, credit card payment treadmill it becomes increasingly more difficult over time to get off the vicious cycle.

Part 2: how to follow YOUR dream

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Picture of Buzz Aldrin's footprint on the Moon courtesy of wikipedia