“A life without a mission has no defined destination.”
― Debasish Mridha
As a personal development and career coach, I have had to discuss the issue of finding one’s mission with many of my clients. People want to know if it is true that everyone has a mission in life. They want to know if their career or business is what they should be doing. Chiefly, they want to know why they don’t feel fulfilled. It makes sense that we find our life’s mission. For many years, I thought about my purpose in life too. I wondered if I was doing what I am here on earth to do. Any human being who wants to live a life of fulfillment must know the reason for their being. If you desire to be the best that you can so that you can live the life of your dream, it is imperative that you first find out what your life is all about. I have always told my clients that finding one’s mission in life is where to start.
A life mission is like a person’s fingerprints. No two people have the same fingerprints. Science tells us that even identical twins do not have the same fingerprints. Everyone has a mission in life to fulfill. It is why you were born. Some people say it is to love and serve God while some say it is to love and serve man. I agree with both points of view. The most important thing is to realize that we all have a mission to fulfill here on earth. Each person’s mission is unique to them. That is why it is important to know what your mission in life is. Some peoples’ mission might be a divine call to the priesthood or to teach kindergarten kids. For some others, it might be to make life easier by designing a product to that effect, and for others like, Saint Mother Teresa it might be to minister to the forgotten and downtrodden people. No one mission is superior to the other. They all fulfill a role that is designed for them. Your mission is embedded in you from when you were conceived in your mother’s; womb. It is not something that falls on you when you have grown and it is going nowhere.
Some of us can identify our mission early in life while some after several wrong turns and perhaps a devastating or near-death encounter. Unfortunately, a lot more will never realize their mission. It is not because they do not have it. It is only because they never knew that they had a mission or never bothered to find out what it is. Your mission is one thing that propels you to do a lot of the things you do. Some of those things initially may not make sense to you or other people. But you do them anyway. Sometimes, it is that thing that people compliment you about. It might also be what they complain about you. To find your mission, you need to pay attention to your life. If you feel that there is more to your life than the way it is, you are most likely correct. That is a pointer that you are not living your mission. Though frustrating, you should not allow the frustration to keep you down. Take charge by investigating your life. I had to do the same. When I discovered it, I had my Aha moment. It indescribably reverberated through me. The thing about it is that I had always felt my mission but I never took it in. I could not articulate it. Perhaps I was afraid because our missions are usually much larger than us so it scares us.
When you discover your mission or feel you have, write it down. Writing things make them more concrete. It is even more so when it is a life mission. Most successful companies worthy of note have well-defined mission statements. The same thing applies to highly successful people. A lot of the high achievers you hear about have clearly articulated mission statements. That is why they are high achievers. Jim Rohn said if you want to be successful, follow the footsteps of successful people. Do what they do. Walk like the walk and if possible, dress like they dress. Find out how they shake hands and learn to shake hands the same way.
This is not to encourage senseless emulation, it just makes sense that you find out what worked for people who have made it in life and try within reason to do as they do. You can become successful too.
Your mission statement is what drives you. It is your beaconing light. It is what helps you to see your potential. So when you set your life goals, they are leading you towards fulfilling your life’s mission. When your goals don’t align with your mission, you know that you are veering off. Your mission in life is what shapes your philosophy. So it is important that you articulate it clearly. If a mission statement is not written down, it is not well articulated and certainly cannot be definitive. Your mission in life is the core of who you are and it does not change over time. Here is what Oprah Winfrey has to say about her life mission, “To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” –Oprah Winfrey. No matter how successful she becomes, this will never change. And it is clear from her early days as a talk show host to her O magazine, her leadership school in South Africa to her television programs, especially her Master Class series. If she decides to retire today, she has left enough materials that teach and motivate. Most articles in her O magazine are driven by her mission. I refer to Oprah because she is a well-known success story. And she has earned every bit of it. If she has a mission statement, don’t you think you too should? Some people pick a quote as their mission statement. If the quote describes your life’s mission, adopt it. But one should come up with a personal mission statement after a thorough introspection. Like most people, I did not know about life’s mission until after I had staggered, slipped, failed, and woke up one day, irate and wondering what on earth is wrong with me. After a thorough search through my life’s journey, I realized a pattern. I have been a teacher, a journalist, and a lawyer.
I love to bring knowledge to people, guide, and help them to solve their problems. I want people to be happy. Sometimes, I over-sympathized or over-empathized. I love stories about creativity, innovation, and success. I am energized by Human triumph and band-aid assistance does not appeal to me. I have always believed that there is more to life if not how come some people can design flying transportation, design, and build bridges underwater, and stuff like that. My curiosity and actions didn’t always find a positive reception but that didn’t stop me. I invested heavily in self-help materials and they opened my mind to a whole new world one that I knew existed but didn’t quite explore. Then, I got my Aha moment. It took a lot of introspection and dissection of my activities, desires, ambitions, and the very thing that pulls my every thought and action to get to it. I realized at the end that my mission is “to help set the captives free and bring light to those in darkness.” My business and professional interests lend themselves to my mission even before I realized what my mission is. It was only after I made the effort to seek out my life’s mission that I connected with the truth that had been buried inside of me all along.
People have also asked if it was necessary to have a mission statement for their business. Your business entity is separate from you as an individual. So if you are an entrepreneur, your mission statement does not stop your company from having one. Every successful company has one. It does the same thing a mission statement does for a person. It gives direction and purpose to the business. “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.” Mark Zuckerberg. Find your mission and you find your life. A life without a mission is like a plane without a pilot. It never takes off.