Why the Stated Mission Matters

It’s hard to avoid cynicism when you’re surrounded by cynical people and the things about which they are cynical…well…sort of deserve the cynicism.  For this reason, I eventually became deaf to ideas about missions and visions.  Both the terms get flung around carelessly, and the results can often be found at the bottom of trash bins, printed on discarded letterhead, squishy globes, and obsolete thumb drives.  The Mission Statement and Vision Statement are both relics of the corporate internal-marketing fad.

It’s unfortunate because there are few things as important to success as the stated mission.  Don’t get me wrong; the Mission Statement is incidental.  It’s the process of understanding, deriving, and stating the mission that really matters.  Once again, the journey, not the destination, provides the ultimate value. 

I’ve driven across the United States.  I’ve driven from the Midwest to California.  I’ve driven from the Midwest to the East Coast.  I’ve driven to Texas, to Florida, and up the coast of Lake Michigan to the shores of Lake Superior.  I’ve always had a destination.  Along the way, I’ve learned that getting to the destination is a whole other part of the experience.  The journey, it turns out, provides just as much, if not more, opportunity for learning, space for incredible experiences.  If I focus single-mindedly on arriving at my destination, I do so at the expense of the countless moments in between here and there.  What a shame that would be, truly.

Ditto the journey of your spirit.  It is imperative that we understand the destination we strive to reach.  Our goals are important.  They provide us with direction.  That’s the Mission Statement.  Planning the journey, executing the plan, changing course along the way to adjust to circumstance, stopping to let the moments happen…these are all elements of getting their, of understanding what it means to state the mission.  When you wrap the experiences up, when you take the time to make sense of all the bits and pieces of the journey…well, then you’re ready to state your mission with clarify and with confidence.

Do you know the mission?  Don’t repeat a statement, make a statement.  State your mission.  Only you can.