Church: Well don't worry because I have a great plan for how we're gonna rescue Tex.
Tucker: A plan? Oh, man, I hate plans. That means we're gonna have to do stuff. Can't we just have a strategy or a ...mission statement?
--- Red vs. Blue, Season 1/ Episode 13: Human Peer Bonding
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| Halo property of Bungee, et al. Red vs. Blue property of Rooster Teeth |
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Outline a mission statement for your life, hm?
I have a visceral reaction to the idea of creating a mission statement for anything. Seriously, my hackles raised when I read this, for no damn good reason.
So, let's start out with a definition. What the fuck is a mission statement, really?
Google Dictionary sez:
mis·sion state·ment/ˈmiSHən ˈstātmənt/noun
I figure Google Dictionary is emotionally invested in getting stuff correct, so I'll trust them on this.
And my mission, if I choose to accept it, is...a mission statement. Mission impossible? Maybe.
But according to Patrick Hull this is totally doable. He writes for Forbes, so he must know something. Of course the article is almost eight years old, he could be dead by now. He could still be correct while being dead, they're not mutually exclusive. I'm not in Forbes target audience, but let's find out if we can sort of follow along with Mr. Hull. His article is for a New Year's resolution mission statement and mine is supposed to be for my whole fucking life but NO PRESSURE!!!! I'm sure we can adjust it to our needs. It's really pretty simple (snort): "Include specific and attainable goals, outline how you plan to achieve those goals".
Your not helping, Patrick. You can go now.
Okay, let's try a different article. Here's on one from Indeed Career Guide for writing personal mission statements to include in resumes. That seems really affected to me, but what do I know. I don't have a regular job. And I was only really happy at one of them in thirty-three years of working. So maybe I shouldn't be such a snob, hm?
Here are their recommended steps:
1. What's most important to you? What are you passionate about?
Okay, so that's easy. Writing, making art, growing things, and cats. And my kids too, but they're grown. If they were still kids they would be first. But hey, it's ME TIME NOW!!! Martial arts too, but that other stuff comes first.
2. What does the "best" version of your life look like? Including relationships, achievements, and career.
It looks like writing, art, growing things, cats, kids, and martial arts. Somehow I think I'm supposed to put more effort into this. Is this like, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Because I've always hated those questions. Five years ago I definitely was in much better shape mentally, physically, and emotionally than I am now and I sure as heck didn't see myself having a nervous breakdown and living through a global pandemic.
Focus! The best version of my life is...not living in this house in this town for one thing. My best life is writing books, making a living writing books. Selling my art. Getting back in fighting shape. Cats. Cats don't need an explanation. And spending time with my family.
I want to write the stories in my head and sell books. I don't want to be FAMOUS because ain't nobody got patience for that, but I want to make a living of writing and be able to give money away when I want to: NPR and PBS, homeless and low-income assistance shelters, animal shelters. I want to be able to set all my bills on automatic payment. Take a vacation, to the ocean. I haven't been to the ocean in...nearly thirty years? Has it really been that long?
I know this is supposed to be helping, but it's not helping.
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| This is Brad. He's living his "extra" life! Be like Brad!!!! |
3.Talk to your peers and mentors and ask what they consider to be your greatest strengths.
Peers and mentors? Do I have those? Do they mean friends? Checking definition of peer..."a member of the nobility...comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron." Oh, okay! I totally have some of those. They're kind of busy though, running a barony ain't all sunshine and roses, you know. And I don't have any mentors. I need to go back to school and get some mentors. But history is happening right now (it was supposed to be space travel, goddamnit!) so that's an idea whose time will have to come later.
I do actually know what they meant by peers, just so you know. That's just a whole lot of awkward anxiety waiting to happen though. I mean, I know how awkward I would feel if someone asked me to tell them their greatest strengths. And what do you do if someone tells you your greatest strength is something you think is really boring? Best not.
4. Identify the legacy you want to leave. What do you consider to be your purpose?
There's your trouble, right there. I don't really care about leaving a legacy. And I don't really feel like I have a purpose. Too many "good ideas", no purpose. Too many directions and can't pick goal because goddamn it, what if it's the wrong one? There's your trouble, friend.
There's your trouble.
5. A simple template to follow when crafting your personal mission statement is by combining the following elements:
“I will /action/ for /audience/ by /skills/ to /desired result/.”
Why didn't they just say this first! God damn it!! Oh...okay, I'm looking at it more closely and it kind of doesn't make any sense. Really, it just seems like a meaningless platitude. Fine, whatever, I'll do it.
"I will write stories for people who read by using words to sell books."
Sigh.
At least I got my blog entry written. Because I only lasted two days at NANO this year. Yeah, there's still thirteen days left. I could jump back in.
Maybe if I didn't spend three hours making one blog post, that would help.
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