Writing Your Own Mission Statement - Part 1 Teresa Pangan, PhD, RD 
Finding Direction Most organizations have a mission statement. The purpose is to communicate to the public what the organization is committed to doing. A personal mission statement parallels this and states what you are committed to doing with your life and what it will look like. There is no right or wrong with your mission statement. Ideally, a personal mission statement will be one paragraph long, however, it can be as brief or as detailed as you want it to be. The only requirement is that your mission statement remind you of the person you want to be, what you want to do and of what values and principles you hold in regard. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau
What is a Personal Mission Statement? Today there are so many choices and it can be intimidating. There are almost too many choices: Where will you work? Where will you live? What do you want for yourself? What do you want for your family? A personal mission statement is a decision making tool. A mission statement helps professionals identify their core values and beliefs. It is an expression of what you are about and what success looks like to you. A mission statement helps in that it guides you and inspires you in your professional and personal life decisions.
Getting Started and Staying Motivated As you grow and transform and broaden your horizons, allow yourself the freedom to expand and refine your mission statement so it suits you whomever you are. Create a personal mission statement and save it into your MyFYC account to greet you every time you login. It will keep you on target and can be refined when things change. Creating a personal mission statement takes time. Do not let that discourage you from trying. The first exercise takes less than a minute to do and is a great way to get started. You can come back later and work through the in-depth writing exercise. The most important thing is do it now - give yourself the gift of direction in your life with a personal mission statement!
Exercises
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