A mission statement is an excellent way for a company, a family, a couple, or even a person to set down on paper what is most important, how he or she or they want to live life or conduct their business. A mission statement writer or a member of an organization with a mission statement ought to be able to refer to the statement and figure out what actions to take, what to schedule for the day, the month, the year or even longer, based on the statement. Conversely, you ought to be able to pause before a decision (should I do ___?) and look at the mission statement and recognize, “Yes, what I’m proposing fits the mission and will lead me or us to the goal.” Further, an outsider ought to be able to look at a group’s mission statement and get a quick and accurate idea of what the group or person is about.
Adopting a mission statement has been a trend in business management and I think companies still use such statements to help direct their activities. Writing a mission statement could be a good idea for anybody. It might be tremendously helpful for a couple to be able to ask each other, “So what’s important to us? How do we want to spend our time, our money, our lives?” Even figuring out the answers can be an excellent process for people to engage in, a good example of how moving toward a point can be as (or more) valuable than the point itself.
During the record snowfall of January 2010, my wife and I were home bound several days in a row. Not only was public transportation barely (or not) running, but our employer had to close because heavy snow and high wind made getting anyplace difficult to impossible. We spent some time making lists, writing goals and ideas on poster paper taped to the wall. Though we didn’t end up writing an actual mission statement, the process of figuring out our goals, hopes, and dreams for the future was valuable and fun. We’re still guided by the things we recognized about who we are and what we want.
Here’s why I’m mentioning this. Writing a mission statement is a way to live literarily, to incorporate something literary, namely writing, into living. Writing a statement about what’s important to you, to you and your mate, or to your organization, is a way to live and do and be what you want, a way to tie together the pieces into a whole that makes sense, that moves, that guides.
