A couple of months ago, I shared the process of writing my personal mission statement on the blog. I started by defining my personal core values, translated that into my personal mission statement and followed through by making guidelines and goals.

At the time I used a Dutch website that guides that process and gives examples of the values and mission statements of other people. Although it’s important to really connect to your own values and define your own mission statement, examples are a great way to get inspired. They also can open your eyes to areas of your life that you may have unwillingly left out.

My blogging friend Stephen of Productivity in Context came up with the idea of building a list of personal mission statements, and asked several fellow bloggers to participate. So this post is an attempt to build a list of examples of mission statements of the readers of How to be an Original. But I’m also very interested to know how you use them, or why you’re not making one.

Have it or hate it? … personal core values, mission statements?

Do you have … (or hate)

• Personal core values?
• A personal mission statement?
• A guiding principle?

How do you use them …

• All the time in everyday life?
• Only when the going gets really tough?
• Only on new years eve?

I’ll kick off with mine in the comments…

It’s been 5 months since the Early Bird Challenge where I changed from being a night owl to being an early bird. GCM triggered me yesterday to think back on the past months and evaluate this transition.

Benefits of rising early

The first three months were pretty easy. I loved the mornings a lot and I enjoyed the benefits of the new rhythm. I changed the rhythm to be able to spend more time with my wife and son, but that wasn’t the only benefit I gained from adopting this new habit.

• Better rested
  I was surprised to notice that I was better rested in general by changing my rhythm. On average I slept an equal amount of hours, but it was more consistent. No longer did I alternate 3 or 4 hour nights with 7 or 8 hour nights, it changed to a very consistent 6 hours every night (give or take 30 minutes).
• Productivity improved
  The morning hours turned out to be more productive hours than the evening hours. One of the reasons for this is because the morning has the aura of starting, whereas the evening and night have the aura of slowing down. And besides that, there are far less distractions in the early morning hours, there’s absolutely nothing interesting on television at that time for instance.
• Decreased ‘bad evening habits’
  Working late at night was accompanied by some glasses of wine (or a beer or two) and midnight snacks too. Not every night of course, but this happened regularly nevertheless. This decreased dramatically when I changed my rhythm. Less time awake at night decreases the opportunity to consume empty calories (like alcohol) or bad calories at bad times. Even if you work late, your body and metabolism slow down towards the night.
• Increased ‘good morning habits’
  Besides eating and drinking healthier in the morning as opposed to the evening, I also added time to do workouts in the morning. And workouts are a great way to boost energy too! I noticed the benefits throughout the day.

Disrupted rhythm

The past two months have been harder for several reasons. I have been having trouble maintaining the rhythm of rising early. It started when I had the flu and needed a lot more sleep. I was still going to bed early, but the 6 hour nights turned into 9 hour nights for quite some time.

Then when I was getting better, our son went into a new phase and woke up crying a lot at night. This broke our nights to the extent that I did not start rising early anymore, simply to get 6 hours of sleep during a 9 hour night. And broken nights are exhausting!

Meanwhile the days were getting a lot shorter with regard to daylight too. And the reduction of daylight does have an effect on my energy levels. Now I wouldn’t say I suffer from winter depression or anything, but I do notice a change.

Reclaiming the rhythm

I had another round of flu and currently we’re in another phase of midnight crying of my son, due to his molars surfacing. The rhythm of rising early has been disrupted so much that I haven’t been able to get back into it yet.

But I’ve found that waking early is still relatively easy to do. When I set my alarm to 5 or 6 am it’s not that hard to get out of bed. Even when it’s cold and dark! That surprised me to some extent, but mostly it encourages me a lot.

I don’t regret listening to my body when it said to sleep more. I needed the sleep to recover from flu and to survive the broken nights. But I really want to get back into the rhythm, because I found that rhythm very beneficial for me on so many levels that I cherish it.

The main thing is that it gives me energy, mental and physical energy. I’ve found myself with low energy levels lately, and I can name all the reasons for those low energy levels to justify the fact that I feel that way. But it wouldn’t do me any good, now would it? So I won’t do it. Getting back into the rhythm will solve it.

I had already started to get back into the rhythm, but writing this update has given me another boost of motivation. Amazing what writing can do. Thanks for inspiring me to write this article GCM!

Last weekend I have accomplished one of my big goals. Since last Sunday I am a certified Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming. Or to quote the certificate:

Lodewijk van den Broek has successfully completed the course of training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and has demonstrated competence in the presuppositions, skills and techniques of Neuro-Linguistic Programming at the level of NLP Practitioner.

Cool huh? I think so! However this article is not about me becoming certified, but about celebrating when you achieve a goal. And taking this as an example is a way to celebrate for me

Goal accomplished?

Accomplishing goals is one of the most gratifying experiences in the goal setting process. It is what all activities and all energy are focused upon: getting the desired result. After all this time working on this goal, alone or in a team, and after overcoming all kinds of unexpected obstacles it has at last produced result. Success!

But…what to do now?

All of a sudden there’s this gaping void of a missing purpose, a loss of direction. This is a natural response, and a lot of people start by setting new goals again. For them the void is so dominant and is perceived as a loss, rather than a gain. So they react by filling the void with new goals.

This is a reaction by adrenaline junkies who have become addicted to the path. It’s like climbing a mountain only to run down again after touching the summit, because the next mountain needs to be climbed.

They have lost their appreciation of a goal accomplished, of the victory of achieving the end-result. It’s great to enjoy the path, but goal setting is about the path and the end-result.

So celebrate the result!

So what do you do when you reached your desired end-result? You celebrate! You won! Go dance your victory dance, sing your song of victory, send out a press release, scream from the top of your lungs, tell everybody around you, buy yourself a gift, have a piece of chocolate cake, take a glass of 18-year old whiskey, get a massage, throw a party…get it?

Achieving success is something to celebrate! The gaping void is not a void; it’s a space to celebrate and to contemplate. But first of all to celebrate!

You just climbed a mountain, now sit down on the summit and enjoy the view. Be proud of being there; look back on the path towards the summit; laugh with the people that climbed with you about the mistakes you made and how you overcame them; thank them for their support along the way.

Be proud!

Celebration is to release the energy that built up along the way, commonly known as stress or strain. Celebrating provides an outlet for that energy and it clears the mind. You will find that the void isn’t a void anymore after the celebration. It’s an open space that you can fill creatively again.

And while enjoying the success and the celebration, small fragments of new goals start to appear. New ideas start to pop up in your mind, not because you need the rush of the path, but because there’s room to create new goals.

Now take the time to realign to your life goals or company goals if you’re in a corporate environment. Make a conscious decision on what you want to achieve next.

I’m not there yet…still celebrating a goal accomplished

This month I learned some goal setting lessons…the hard way! I’ve been working with setting goals and blogging about it for a couple of months now. And I made some mistakes. Preventable mistakes? Maybe, but honest mistakes anyway. This is a series of posts about those mistakes.

Mistake 3: Not Quantifying Enough

Goals represent things that you want to achieve. But not everything is quantitative, or expressed in numbers if you will. There are qualitative goals too, and those are usually about changing habits.

The problem with these goals is that you start enthusiastically, but never really know when it’s finished. Some habits changes have it built in, ‘quit smoking’ for instance is a habit change with a very measurable end result. But there are lots of other habit changes that don’t necessarily have a defined end result. You need to define when the habit change is a success.

Other habit changes are more of a means to a goal. Why do you want to change that habit? What is it that you want to achieve exactly? Do you just want to run twice a week? Or do you want to be able to run a marathon twice a year? If it’s the latter, state that as the goal. The habit change is only a way to get there (and an incomplete one too!).

Example: Qualitative habit changes
The goals:

1. Starting August 2007 I change my sleeping pattern to rising early, so I can spend more quality time with my family
2. Starting October 2007 I actively call, mail or see friends or family on at least four days a week.
3. Starting September 2007 I review my mission, guidelines and goals on a weekly basis
4. Starting September 2007 I workout five times a week, alternating running and weight lifting

The problem:
These goals have no end, because they lack a measurable end result, a criterion to define success. They start at a point in time, but when can I say: OK, this is a success!

Goal 1 was a major habit change, that I blogged about in the Early Bird Challenge. It was a success, and still is, but how did I define this? For this particular goal, I wanted to change to rising early (4:30 am) during August. I ended up at 5:00 am, and have sustained it pretty much ever since. But I never quantified when the sustained habit change was a real success? I also wanted to spend more quality time (oops: self-sabotage) with my family. But I did not quantify it.

As far as goal 2, 3 and 4 are concerned: when is it a success? After a week? Two weeks? Ten? A year?

Goal 2: What is the result I want to achieve with that habit change? Do I want it just to do it, or is there something else? Obviously I don’t want to stalk and harass my family and friends to meet my goal.

Something similar for the workouts. What defines a workout? Is picking up my 10 kilo son also lifting weights? Is working on home renovation a workout? And what do I want to achieve anyway? The running obviously is a means towards running half a marathon next year. But lifting weights?

The solution:
These goals need rephrasing or redefining. First I ask myself the question: What do I want to achieve with this? Then redefine the goal to a measurable goal.

Goal 1: I wanted to achieve that I’m awake and energetic when my family is awake. To do this, I needed to change my sleeping pattern. Change is successful after a sustained period of at least 5 out of 7 days for 10 weeks.

Goal 2: I want to achieve that I have an active social life. Being a father, working, blogging and pursuing goals can consume loads of time, and I don’t want to forget my friends and family. Goal was already rephrased in a weekly review to “Be in contact with…”. Successful if sustained for 10 weeks.

Goal 3: I want to pro-actively create my own reality. I don’t know how to measure that, so there’s no change to formulation. Successful if sustained for 10 weeks.

Goal 4: I want to achieve an athletic body with plenty of stamina. Stamina is measured by my ability to run half a marathon (and survive). Athletic body is measured by the amount of muscle mass (needs to increase) and fat percentage (needs to be reduced). For the latter two I need to do more research on exact figures.

Still not very easy to do, I must admit. But they have improved, and I can measure progress.

Goal Setting Rules

So what are the lessons here?

1. If there’s nothing to measure, you’re not done formulating yet
2. Habit changes are a means to an end, not goals by themselves

This still is a difficult part of goal setting. I’m not sure whether I’ve seen this one through all the way.

I’ll learn as I go along, I guess. I would love to hear your thoughts on this one.

Tomorrow: Mistake 4: Moving Targets

This month I learned some goal setting lessons…the hard way! I’ve been working with setting goals and blogging about it for a couple of months now. And I made some mistakes. Preventable mistakes? Maybe, but honest mistakes anyway. This is a series of posts about those mistakes.

Mistake 2: Colliding deadlines

As a deadline comes close, anxiety rises. Even when you’re not procrastinating, the intensity of the work you need to do to get the job done rises as the deadline comes closer.

My experience is that I can get into a state of flow when I work on meeting a deadline. But single tasking and focusing are essential when you want to reach that flow-state. Having several goals with the same (self-imposed!) deadline is a very effective way of preventing that flow-state. I can tell you that! Now add a busy holiday season with a lot of social activity going on, and you’re toast.

Example: 4 goals, 1 deadline, holiday season
The goals:

1. By December 2007 the renovation of the 2nd floor of our house is finished and the office is ready for use
2. By December 2007 the garden in the front and back have been redone and are safe for children
3. By December 2007 I am a certified NLP Practitioner
4. By December 2007 I have over 2500 RSS subscribers on my blog

The problem:
I have 4 goals to be finished in December.

December!! What was I thinking?

Early December we have the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas, followed by Christmas and to top it off there’s New Year’s Eve! December is packed with social activities and other fun stuff to do.

This is a disaster waiting to happen. Imagine the choice: Go for the goals and totally ignore family and friends during the family month. Or participate in all the activities with family and friends, but with goals that are about to fail on your mind all the time? Neither is a lot of fun, I can tell you that.

The solution:
The solution to mistake 1 was already to schedule out goal 1 (renovation of 2nd floor).

I also decided to keep the goal 4 (2500 subscribers) like it is.

Goal 3 has an imposed deadline, the final test for the NLP Practitioner certification is on December 16. So that’s one’s staying as well.

And goal 2, well…that one will reappear in another mistake and will resolve then. So stay tuned.

Goal Setting Rules

So what are the lessons here?

1. Distribute deadlines whenever possible
2. Take non-goal related activities into account

Again no rocket science. But hey, I was stupid enough to fall for them, and I consider myself a smart person

Tomorrow: Mistake 3: Not Quantifying Enough