MY MISSION: Examples in the world
NOTE: This is an excerpt of the course MY MISSION -
sections 0 and 1 (out of total 11 sections, see Index of Contents).
Examples in the world
Why should I formulate, put in writing, refine and finally announce my Vision and my Mission Statement?
Companies do that, but why should I do it?
Answer: Those companies (institutions, organizations, etc) that do not do this do not develop. Their employees do not know what the company really is aiming for, what they should focus on, how they should prioritize.
The companies that do, but out of duty, and where the result often is a pretentious mission statement consisting of many pages hidden in a glossy business plan, do not develop well either.
The companies that really put their heart to it, using their focus and energy in producing, activating commitment and publishing a clear Vision and a concrete Mission Statement, they succeed in achieving what they have set up to do.
What is true about companies, is true for you as well.Your own inner being is built up of many different parts, that are in varying degree connected to each other. The psychological school of Psychosynthesis calls these subpersonalities. These function mostly as if they were isolated individuals, a bit like employees in a company.
Just like the employees work towards common goals when the mission of the company is clear, is easy to understand and arouses enthusiasm, all your subpersonalities and your subconscious mind will work together, in the same direction, when your vision and your personal mission are clearly and concisely expressed.
Your thoughts, emotions, intuitions, needs and inner drives become coherent, and this is a necessary condition for your passion to be aroused and to stay alive.
Inner clarity gives inner power
A Vision Statement and a Mission Statement that correspond with your innermost dreams and your (maybe partly subconscious) drives, and that are well formulated,
will help you in every phase of your life to keep your focus and to direct your energy towards what is necessary.WHEN YOU HAVE CLARITY,
WHAT YOU WANT WILL MANIFEST,
BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT YOU ARE CLEAR.And the reverse is also true - a fuzzy or a non-existent mission statement will make you react on other people's opinions of what your mission and responsibility is or should be, or it will make you react on your beliefs about what others think. The specific situation or the person you are interacting with will control which of your different subpersonalities you at that instance become "sucked into". Because of this, your inner energies, your inner values, perceptions, etc may sometimes work together but may at other times come into conflict with each other.
The end result may be an inner fragmentation - your thoughts, emotions, intuitions, needs and drives become divergent, and the fire, the passion, gets no fuel, and dies...
When you now are starting up this project it is important, just like in any large project in a company, to do "bench-marking", i.e. investigate how others have done. To study positive as well as negative examples. It is unwise to repeat mistakes already made by others, it is wise to be inspired by positive examples of success.
Here follows a list of companies that have achieved their goals, and where a strongly contributing factor probably has been clarity, that is a clear vision / business concept, and that furthermore ha been kept unchanged for a long period of time.
The Vision and/or Mission Statements presented here have in common that they are concrete (what they want or intend to do is clear), they are short and concise, and they are easy to remember.
Facebook:
“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”
Harley Davidson:
"We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments."
They have since many years now even been able to protect their unique engine sound as part of their brand...
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEAs, formulated his vision already in the early 40´s, and is the same today:
"IKEA's vision is to help people over the world to create a better life at home. Ikea's mission is to offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function, excellent quality and durability, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them"
George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, had an even more concise business idea / vision, as early as 1888:
"You press the button, we do the rest."
And the rest is history ...
Manpower:
"To be the best worldwide provider of higher-value staffing services and the center for quality employment opportunities."
Microsoft:
"We work to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. This is our mission. Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible."
UN, United Nations:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.
PLAN:
"Plan's vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people's rights and dignity.
We do this by working with, rather than for, the children, their families and the society they live in, helping them achieve positive change in their lives."
Jesus:
”The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11)
”I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Mahatma Gandhi:
”We must be the change we wish to see.”
” Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.”
Martin Luther King Jr:
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. Say that I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things in life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he is travelling wrong, then my living will not be in vain."
There are of course many negative examples out there, and taking part of these does not really give any good guidance. But, it may still be interesting to study examples that are unclear, that do not arouse enthusiasm, and that probably do not lead to the outcomes that the persons that wrote them hoped for.
In order to avoid exposing these negative examples on this page, they have been gathered in an enclosure.
So, with these examples as an inspiration, now do your own "benchmarking": Search on the internet or at your local library for more examples that can make you clear about how companies, organizations and individual persons have achieved great things, followed their dreams, lived and acted with passion and drive.
Select those examples that are doing or have done things that are similar to the things you dream of doing.
Gather what you find in your Course Binder, you were asked to prepare before for this course. Put your notes under the next divider, that you can denote Benchmarking.
The three steps are:
INTENTION - ATTENTION - NO TENSION
The purpose of this section is to activate your intention to fulfil your dreams, to find what would make you passionately engaged, and to explore how to put this in words.
This section tries to do this by positive examples, those that have been presented here, and those you may find yourself.
Next step, ATTENTION, will start when you have put words on your Vision and when you have made your Mission Statement, further down in this course. ATTENTION implies focusing on what your INTEND to pursue, implies relating to it all the time, in everything that happens in your life.
The last step, NO TENSION, will start when you have formulated your goals and when you have put together an Action Plan.
Parts of your Action Plan will be things you may not be able to influence directly.
But, by putting yourself in an inner state of NO TENSION, your ATTENTION and you conscious INTENTION will subconsciously make you to meet with, or will make you discover, information, resources and key persons that you need to reach your goals.How this step shall be taken is what the finalizing sections of the course will be about.
But for now, it may be appropriate to point out the following, a statement on which much in this course is based:YOUR LIFE IS CREATED
FIRST IN YOUR MIND,
THEN IN THE WORLD.
You have now finalized the first steps in activating your INTENTION - you have made an inventory of your present life and you have become aware of that you want more out of your life, and you have explored what others "out there" have done to fulfil their dreams.
The button Next below will take you to next section, which will be about The Ways of the Self.
This section will describe the different kinds of core values people can burn for, and by exploring this you may become more aware of which important core values consciously or subconsciously have lead you on your Path.
(Read about the Psychosynthesis term The Self on the PsykosyntesForum site.)
