Detailing my mission statement into guidelines and goals

On Tuesdays I write about Living my Legend. This section is inspired by The Alchemist and is an account of my journey of living my potential.

In this article I will be detailing my mission statement into guidelines and goals. But first a quick recap of the previous two articles.

My five personal core values are:

Love - Fun - Freedom - Authenticity - Growth

They are the basis for my mission statement:

I, Lodewijk van den Broek, love life and have a lot of love to give. I enjoy authentic growth and I help others to grow. I’m here to have lots of fun and enjoy my freedom in comfort and vitality.

Why make guidelines and goals?
My values define what I want to experience in this life, and my mission works as a compass to point me in the right direction. These are fairly static, they will not change very often and changes will most likely be minor. To be of practical use on a day to day basis, they need to be translated into workable guidelines and goals, that can be more dynamic and adapt to changing circumstances.

Guidelines are ‘rules’ I want to live by, that find their roots in my mission statement and in my personality. They can be formulated ambitiously, meaning that I may not live by those rules yet. Goals are simply what they are: goals. Things I want to achieve, formulated in a SMART way.

And with the guidelines and goals, I can define habits changes, projects and actions to start working on getting them done, to attain my goals and live by my guidelines.

Different ’states’ of life
For detailing the guidelines and goals, I use a system of five different states in life as used by Remco Claassen in his book (only available in Dutch (aff) unfortunately). The five different states are:

• Material state
  This is everything regarding money and possessions.
• Active state
  This is how you are active in life, the way you add value to society. This can be work, volunteer work, but also hobbies.
• Social state
  This is about you in relationship with others. What is your role as human being, as parent, child, spouse, friend, colleague and so on.
• Emotional state
  This is about how you feel, about the inner voice and about inner peace if you will.
• Physical state
  This is about what you want with your body and mind.

This is just one of the possible systems you could use for detailing it. It’s very possible that another division is more comfortable for you, but this works for me right now. We’ll see where this takes me and I believe it will evolve over time if needed.

Detailing the five states for my mission statement
So this is where the real translation begins. This is a creative process again, quite like writing the mission statement was, but on a different level. What worked for me was sitting at the kitchen table with six empty pieces of paper. I took a big permanent marker (this is important stuff so I like using appropriate equipment ) and wrote the title of every state on a different piece of paper and left one blank.

I poured a glass of red wine, and started to dream away and write all kinds of things I would love to have, do or experience. I started to categorize them on the five states, and when there was no fit (yet) I parked them on the sixth paper. There was no limit as to what was possible, anything goes, just put it down. Do this for an hour at least (you can take another glass of wine…)

I left the papers be for a week or so and planned a quiet (alcohol free) moment to review them. Reviewing the papers, I added some other stuff and started to see common elements in what I wrote down. I used all kinds of colors to connect things, scribbled down small statements connected some more, marked with fluorescent markers and so on. In short another creative process, but a convergent process. It was bringing stuff together.

Another process might work for you, but this worked for me. This is the result:

Material state
Guidelines / ‘rules’:

• I will not buy stuff I cannot easily afford
• I have financial freedom
• I own a large and spacious house with free views and a garden

Goals:

• By December 2007 the garden in the front and back have been redone and are safe for children
• By December 2007 the renovation of the 2nd floor of our house is finished and the office is ready for use
• By March 2008 I have achieved a monthly passive income of €500

Active state
Guidelines:

• I create grand and beautiful things that have growth and fun as a central theme
• I create positive energy for myself and pass it on in interaction with other people
• Action is the only way of learning
• Simple is always better than complex

Goals:

• By December 2007 I am a certified NLP Practitioner
• By December 2007 I have over 2500 RSS subscribers on my blog
• By March 2008 I have given my first training / workshop as a trainer

Social state
Guidelines:

• I make people cheerful and make them think
• I help other when they ask me, and the people I love before they ask me
• I love nature and give her back as much as she gives me

Goals:

• Starting August 2007 I change my sleeping pattern to rising early, so I can spend more quality time with my family
• Starting October 2007 I actively call, mail or see friends or family on at least four days a week.

Emotional state
Guidelines:

• I listen to my intuition and take it seriously
• There is no failure, only feedback I can learn from

Goals:

• Starting September 2007 I review my mission, guidelines and goals on a weekly basis
• Starting January 2008 I take one day every quarter to be alone and away from home, to listen to my body and soul and to evaluate and visualize.

Physical state
Guidelines:

• I listen to my body and keep myself in balance
• I have a lithe and athletic body with excellent stamina
• My diet mainly consists of healthy organic food

Goals:

• Starting September 2007 I workout five times a week, alternating running and weight lifting
• In October 2008 I run half a marathon in Eindhoven

Next step: Just do it!
This is as far is I go with detailing what I want to achieve. Are my guidelines and goals ambitious? You bet they are! The next step is to start working on them. I expect that my weekly review will help me most in aligning my thoughts and actions in the direction I set for myself. I keep you updated on my progress.

Send me your thoughts, encouragements or feedback please. I love to hear and learn from you.