Developing a Personal Vision

About personal vision

Exploratory exercises in preparation for writing a personal vision/mission statement

What is a vision/mission statement?

Developing a Personal Vision

3. What do you love? What are your interests? List them.

1. Identify your past successes. Spend some time identifying four or five examples where you have had personal success in recent years. These successes could be at work, in your community, at home, etc. Write them down. Try to identify whether there are common themes to these examples. Write them down.

2. What are the ten things you most enjoy doing? Be honest. These are the ten things without which your weeks, months, and years would feel incomplete. What three things must you do every single day to feel fulfilled in your work?

4. Identify your core values, a list of attributes that you believe identify who you are and what your priorities are. The list can be as long as you need. Once your list is complete, see if you can narrow your values to five or six most important values. Finally, see if you can choose the one value that is most important to you.

Your personal vision statement guides your life. Your personal vision statement provides the direction necessary to guide the course of your days and the choices you make about your career. Your personal vision statement is the light shining in the darkness toward which you turn to find your way. Your personal vision statement illuminates your way.

— Susan Heathfield

A vision and mission statement is a paragraph that encapsulates everything you would like to be, do, and have in your career.

It defines what success and excellence look like to you. It expresses your vision for where you want to be in the future and it reflects your values, goals, and purpose and how you want to operate.

— Susanne Madsen

5. Identify your potential contributions. Make a list of the ways you could make a difference. In an ideal situation, how could you contribute best to the world in general, to your family, to your employer or future employers, to your friends, and to your community?

7. When your life is ending, what will you regret not doing, seeing, or achieving? (Guesswork is OK here.)

6. If you never had to worry about money for the rest of your life, how would you spend your time?

Examples

8. What strengths have other people commented on about you and your accomplishments? What strengths do you see in yourself?

A good vision/mission statement:

To inspire individuals of African American decent to not be another "Black" statistic. I aspire to be a leader in my state in the corporate world and bring representation to my kind as an Afro-Caribbean female. Being an influential and persuasive speaker, I will use my skills to bring justice in areas of injustice and falsehood permeating my legislative profession. I will stand for holiness in all that I do and live in simplicity and grace as I represent Jesus Christ in this journey called life.

Vision

Why write it down?

“My vision is to be an honest, empathetic and impactful project leader and to be recognized internationally within my industry. I am committed to growing as a leader and delivering value-added projects to the end users. My mission is to create and lead a dream team where everyone is playing to their strengths.”

• what you want to achieve in the future
• “Where do I want to be?”
• five, ten or more years
• inspires you to give your best and shapes your understanding of why you are doing what you do

Mission

Writing them down lends power and commitment to their accomplishment.

— Brian Tracy

• concise
• inspirational
• memorizable/repeatable
• clear
• engaging
• realistic
• positive

• states your intentions
• summarizes your values
• demonstrates your commitment

• what you want now
• more concerned with the present state
• “What do I do?”, “How do I do it?”, “Who do I do it for?”, “What makes me different”, and “What is the benefit?”
• talks about the present leading to the future, and how you will get to where you want to be

To live life fully, honestly, and compassionately while making a positive impact on all those around me.

Combine both into a vision and mission statement.

I want to be an effective educational leader and exemplary teacher educator of the times. My wish is to extend my services to my nation generally and to my community, particularly in improving the quality of education. I want to develop research skills and other life skills to use my potential in community development.

9. What weaknesses have other people commented on about you and what do you believe are your weaknesses?

10. Your life has a number of important facets or dimensions. Write one important goal for each of them:

• physical,
• spiritual,
• work or career,
• family,
• social relationships,
• financial security,
• mental improvement and attention,
• and fun.

Alternatively, make a list of your personal goals, perhaps in the short-term (up to three years) and the long-term (beyond three years).

After the fact: sharing and revising your statement

?

Write a personal vision/mission statement

Stretch

Bart Everson

Center for the Advancement of

Teaching and Faculty Development

2018

Xavier University of Louisiana

The ultimate purpose of the University is to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service in a global society.

Access all materials: catwiki.xula.edu

Credits & References

Telescope

public domain

via Pixabay

Create Your Personal Vision Statement

http://humanresources.about.com/od/success/a/personal_vision.htm

Creating a Personal Mission and Vision Statement

http://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/create-personal-mission-vision-statement-year/

The Five Step Plan for Creating Personal Mission Statements

http://www.quintcareers.com/creating_personal_mission_statements.html