Introduction

I was given this book The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and Life,
written by Laurie Beth Jones, by one of my very best mentors, Lisa Hill. Lisa is an
organizer for the Global Leadership Summit, which she brought to Rochester via The
Lightheart Institute. She offered it to me as an opportunitive tool to me for improving
my self-leadership, which I am sure will improve my life experience and general success
level.  The purpose of this blog is to summarize and reflect upon the the above mentioned
book with the ultimate goal of providing myself with a personal mission statement. It is
my greatest wish that you enjoy this journey in getting to know me and that you are also
inspired to ask questions to yourself about how you may perhaps find your own personal
mission statement that will lead you more directly to your own best life.

Introduction

The key to being successful in life
is to know your mission. It is a reason
for being. It provides meaningful path
that may direct activities, and creates
the opportunity for focus. It can  also
signify a change in direction.  Creating
a mission statement is often an arduous
process. For many people or groups it
takes months or even years. This book
offers a formula to simplify the process
and provide greater clarity.

A mission statement is a powerful tool that
will help with positioning, decision making,
and an answer to “what am I about?” It helps
know what sort of activities will move one in the
right direction. It allows one to transcend “jobs” and maintain a purpose with or without
employment, as everything you do is a means toward a well defined end. It can help navigate
relationships and endure highly challenging external situations. “A personal mission statement
acts as both a harness and a sword - harnessing you to what is true about your life, and cutting
away all that is false.”

Each of us must constantly face the questions “where now?” and “what next?”  This book is
written to help define your personal mission statement and provide tools to help accomplish it.
Not finding it, but rather fulfilling it.  While it offers a formula, it’s more about the evolutionary  process as revolutionary life changes unfold.

“People with clearly defined life missions have always led those who haven’t any. You are either
living your mission, or you are living someone else’s. Which shall it be?”

My Reflection:

At the onset of this process, I am grateful to Lisa for the book, and optimistic about this particular
portion of illuminating my personal leadership.  It looks like it is going to be very helpful.  I know
enough about myself to be able to say that this is precisely the sort of tool I need to achieve a
fulfilling life.  

I thought I found my calling in 2008 when I applied to a master's program in library science. Wrote
my application essay and got pregnant the same week!  I graduated with $80,000 of debt and (Ooops!) two kids under the age of two in a tight job market (ahhh trippple ooops doesn't even
begin to describe).  I felt that the possibility of achieving any kind of "best life" slipped out of my
grasp as the challenges of that sort of motherhood took over. Meanwhile, most of my support network abandoned me to go live their own best lives.  Basically, I became lost in a deep, dark fairy tale
forest.

The years spent at home, searching for my true self within, studying hard and earning
excellent grades only to find my goal was nothing but a feminist mirage, and the
exhausting work of raising two young children with minimal help led me to feel uncertain
and aimless in my approach for life. The stress that situation placed on my new husband
was beyond what anyone should have to endure, then that in turn placed far more stress
on me and my two babies than could provide us with a successful start to their precious
and important young lives. And mine.  Now my oldest is ten, and it is time that I, at
long last, find a way to escape from the quagmire that the events of 2008-10 created for
me.


I desire to live authentically, abundantly,
 happily, and provide my children with a
good life.  I desire to enjoy inspiration
and creativity, yet remain grounded in
logical solutions and practical routines.
Now, at 36 years old, it is time once
again to dig deep. Ask the question
"what am I about?" and find the answer.
This time I have more tangible life
experiences to consider rather than the
nebulous thoughts of an early 20-something.



These days I seem to be "busy," but to what end?  Getting lost in the internet takes me away
from other tasks I should be doing, and I've had more hobbies than I can count.  I'm a person
that can generate many creative ideas, but which do I implement? What is the best way to divide
my time? Among all the perceived weaknesses I imagine to be true about myself, I am looking
forward to defining “what I’m about” in such a way that will reduce the aimless component to
my life and solidify my personal truth and world view so that I will have a proper lodestar from
which to base my decisions.  I sincerely hope it will provide me freedom from involuntarily
imposed ‘truth’ about my life and false marketing from others that has become a rampant thinking
distortion in society these days. I would like to be consciously in control of who I am and what
I’m about so that I may place my best foot forward and be the changes that need to happen in
this world. I am ready to cut away all that is false.  I am ready to distill all this truth and information that I’ve been collecting and create products that represent what’s needed for the evolution of
humanity able to harmoniously and happily exist on planet earth.