As I have been contemplating the struggles that all of us go through in life, I am reminded of this powerful quote by Albert E. N. Gray:

“The successful person has the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.”

I invite you to ponder on this idea in your own life. What are the things you know you have to do but are avoiding? If you were to discipline yourself and create a plan for doing those things, would you find positive, even breakthrough rewards?

For me, I know when I have avoided doing something, I have eventually seen that I’ve paid an even higher price by avoidance. For example, when I neglect my health by not eating right, exercising, or getting enough sleep, because I find it hard to stick to a disciplined regiment, I find myself feeling sluggish and not doing my best work. When I finally subordinate my dislikes to the strength of my purpose, things turn around.

I challenge you to contemplate your life and identify something you are avoiding and make a promise to yourself that you will do it. Make a promise and keep it. Subordinate the things you dislike doing to your greater purpose. I am confident that you the more you do this, the more strength you will build-and the more success you will find. What have you been avoiding? What is the end result you would like to see in your life?

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The key to being proactive is remembering that between stimulus and response there is a space. That space represents our choice- how we will choose to respond to any given situation, person, thought or event. Imagine a pause button between stimulus and response-a button you can engage to pause and think about what is the principle-based response to your given situation. Listen to what your conscience tells you. Listen for what is wise and the principle-based thing to do, and then act. Have you done this? I would love to hear how your experiences have changed.

Remember being proactive becomes much more powerful when connected and related to the other habits. The key to the habits is the power of their combined synergy and meaningful purpose.

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According to Dr. Stephen R. Covey a mission statement is like a constitution by which you make all decisions for your life. Highly effective people shape their own future instead of letting other people, their culture, or their circumstance determine it. A mission statement provides direction and clarity for your life, your family, your team and your organization.

Such clarity is critically important in today’s turbulent climate. You may work within an organization with fewer people, fewer resources, more confusion, and more noise-you may be expected to do as much or more with far fewer resources. In order to survive in such an environment, you need a compass to help stay focused and on course in order to make critical decisions and accomplish key priorities.

Benefits of a Mission Statement:

• Gives you a greater sense of meaning and purpose.
• Guides your day-to-day decisions.
• Helps you design your life, your family, your team or your organization instead of having it designed for you.
• Provides focus.
• Clarifies what is most important.

If you don’t have a mission statement or are ready to revamp, we can help you get started today. FranklinCovey’s mission statement builder provides an introspective path to creating your mission statement as you answer thought-provoking questions you will uncover your core values and highest goals.

Click here to use FranklinCovey’s Mission Statement Builder to get started today.

Once you write your mission statement come back and tell us about your experience or share your mission with us. We would love to hear from you.

I liked everything I heard, but some habits and ideas resonated with me more than others. Habit 2, Begin With the End in Mind was a habit that made theoretical sense to me, but it’s application (writing a personal mission statement) just seemed a little too ‘touchy-feely’ to me. It wasn’t that I was against the idea. I mean, ‘if you’re the kind of person that is in to that self-exploratory stuff, that’s great, but that kind of thing just isn’t my style.’ I will be honest, I kind of glossed over Habit 2.

Big mistake.

You see, I loved Habit 3, Put First Things First. After learning all about getting organized and putting the big rocks in the jar first, I went out and got a planning system, filled it with stuff (including a color-coded class-schedule) and proceeded to become dangerously efficient. It wasn’t too long however, before I learned that you can’t put first things first without knowing what your first things are! A planning system without the groundwork of a personal mission statement does lead to greater efficiency, but also greater ineffectiveness. As educator Neal Maxwell said, it’s like ’straightening deck chairs on the Titanic’

So, I began the process of hammering out a first draft of my mission. It has been through several revisions in the last 20 years or so, but has served as an invaluable tool in helping me stay focused on what matters most. It has given me the confidence and power to comfortably say “no” to really good, but unimportant things that would lead me to places I really don’t want to go. I have found Stephen Covey’s statement to be correct, ‘It’s easy to say no when you have a deeper yes burning within’.

Such clarity is critically important in today’s turbulent climate. We frequently work with organizations that have less people, less resources, more confusion, and more noise-they are simply expected to do as much or more with far fewer resources. In order to survive such an environment, we need a compass to help us stay focused and on course in order to make critical decisions and accomplish key priorities. A mission statement is that compass.

So, pay the price. Build your mission. Start now. One day, many years from now, when you are precisely where you want to be, you will be very glad you did.”

You can get started by using FranklinCovey’s Mission Statement Builder tool at: http://franklincovey.com/msb

This tool will help you discover your mission and values but will help you find the right words to put your mission down on paper. Once you build your mission statement please come back and tell us about your experience and share thoughts and insights.

Click here to register for a free webcast I will be conducting on discovering your purpose and writing your mission statement. Your source code is B5W.

Author: James Cathcart, FranklinCovey Consultant

Click here to read more from James Cathcart.

Author: Greg Link, The Global Speed of Trust Practice Leader at FranklinCovey

I got up on today, April 1,  and unscrewed all of the canister lights in my kitchen, woke up my daughter and told her ‘no school today! too much snow and wind’, came to work and taped down a few mouse balls, and just generally wreaked some havoc and all because of my personal mission statement, after all it is April Fools’ Day.

FranklinCovey has a new “old” audio product just released called “How to Develop Your Personal Mission Statement.”  I picked it up, listened, and tried again. I have written mission statements a couple of times and I always ended up feeling like I didn’t quite have it right yet. Sometimes I felt like it was more driven from fear-what if I write this down and I can’t really make it happen? Will that make me a loser in life?

A personal mission statement is based on Habit 2, Begin With The End In Mind.  In  life, the most effective way to begin with the end in mind is to develop a mission statement, one that focuses on what you want to be in terms of character, and what you want to do in reference to life contributions and achievements.  Maybe it’s because it’s Spring, or because of where I am in life, but this time it really stuck. Maybe it’s just as Victor Hugo once said, “There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” And the time had come for my mission statement to become a powerful force in my life.

What really helped me out was the CD full of tools that is included in this audio package. It has all kinds of FranklinCovey tools and resources but most importantly it has a personal mission statement builder. I personally needed a sense of destination and the mission statement builder gave me that and created the energy to get me started and the inspiration to finish. In fact, Stephen says that at the beginning of this process there is enormous hope and encouragement as well as fun and happiness. And that for me was the clincher. My mission statement should be fun.

That tool, combined with Stephen’s coaching, got me to a place where I feel like I’m back on course and I can make a difference in this world and I will make a contribution.

So, what does all of this have to do with April Fools’ Day and the pranks I played? My mission is all about living a life of fun and good cheer, learning to have and share fun, showing and sharing love through joyful fun, and leaving a legacy of fun.

So, when it’s all said and done, I want people to come to my funeral and have a rip roarin’ fun party!

Author:  Annie Oswald