Mission statement.

The question of mission has become, if anything, even more important as our world becomes increasingly disruptive and turbulent. No matter how much the world changes, people still have a fundamental need to belong to something they can feel proud of. They have a fundamental need for guiding values and sense of purpose that give their life and work meaning. They have a fundamental need for connection to other people, sharing with them the common bond of beliefs and aspirations. They have a desperate need for a guiding philosophy, a beacon on the hill to keep in sight during dark and disruptive times. More than any time in the past, people will demand operating autonomy – freedom plus responsibility – and will simultaneously demand that the organizations of which they are a part stand for something.

A week ago today, I had a revelation. A revelation that I wanted to do something and start making things happen as opposed to sitting back and waiting for them to fall into my lap. A friend now refers to them as “stop-the-hairdryer breaking thoughts and news” because that’s literally what I did — I stopped blowdrying my hair, risking potential curling (!!!), and wrote down my ideas to make sure I didn’t forget them.

I’ve wanted to put my talents to use in a new way for the longest time. I’ve wanted to find a way to incorporate what skills I have to accomplish something for the greater good — do something for people who can’t or don’t know how to. I’ve been looking for a mission and I’ve found it.

After talking my initial mission over with a few people, I honed it a little more. Next, I set out to the bookstore one day after work and picked up some resources on getting a nonprofit started including The Five Most Important Questions, a self-assessment tool for nonprofits to use in re-examining their organization. I’ve been reading the book and writing ideas and questions in the margins all weekend.

At just 97 pages, I’ve had the opportunity to read it twice now. I realized that the portions I was highlighting were not only relevant the brainstorming and plan-writing phase of this endeavor, but also to where I am in my life right now. Things like:

• Self-discovery is an introspective and courageous journey that gives [... people] the energy and courage to grow.
• There is no conventional bottom line.
• Leadership has no choice but to anticipate the future and attempt to mold it, bearing in mind that whoever is content to rise with the tide will also fall with it.
• To abandon anything is always bitterly resisted. People [...] are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not.
• What endures from the work [...] is not how hard we try or how clever we may be or even how much we care. [... .] But ultimately what is remembered is how we have been able to improve lives.
• Before you go into something new, don’t say, “This is how we do it.” Say, “Let’s find out what this requires.”
• It is important to recognize what you do not know, when you are not yet sure whether to abandon, concentrate, go into something new or take a particular risk.

These little tidbits have encouraged me to ask tough questions of myself and my ideas. It’s made me think and utilize the analytical skills I haven’t really utilized since I wrote my thesis more than two years ago. Most of all: it’s made me feel inspired again.

This December blogging project was initially supposed to be a storytelling project, one that got me in touch with myself and my voice. However, as with many blog posts and projects, it’s quickly turning into a self-introspection and assessment process thanks in large part to this book. And I’m enjoying it. A lot.

I find myself constantly thinking about topics in the book and how I’m going to either write about it in the mission-values-goals brief I’m writing or in this blog. For the past few months, I’ve been begging myself to have the courage to write about something and just hit publish. And now I have it.

Now I have it.