Each of us has our own model of the world, which, according to Stephen Covey’s apt comparison, can be likened to a map. A tiny topographical error on the map where we mark our tactical and strategic goals can lead to someone else's goal. And we will only know about this when we get to our destination.
At the same time, initially being confident that we are moving in the right direction, we will exert all our strength and energy, spend a lot of time, and risk everything in order not to be late. And as a result, we will still end up in the wrong place.
And all because a tiny topographical error crept into the map. It’s also good if this is a tactical map where our current small goals are marked. What if there is a mistake in the map, where the red thread indicates the “autobahn” to the goal of our whole life?
Some will try to argue: happiness is a relative concept; you can be happy here and now by changing your attitude to reality?
But let’s think, will the fact that we will gain the opportunity to “get high” anywhere on the planet help us get closer to our goal? Therefore, Covey corrects, solving the problem of setting and achieving goals, as well as defining our main mission, does not lie in the plane of our attitude towards it.
Interesting digression
“A man who has realized his mission seems to me to be an amazingly beautiful sailboat, the majestic progress of which gives everyone around him a feeling of delight, harmony and love.” Stephen Covey
Can you tell us something interesting about yourself that takes your breath away? What about your friends or colleagues, what can they tell you about you? Maybe your children, grandchildren, or maybe your spouse or parents are proud of your achievements? What do your loved ones say about you?
I suggest you sit down, pick up a notepad and pen, and write down these facts. This is how to write everything point by point. And then write the conclusion in just one sentence.
What benefit have you brought to people, what useful things have you done, what will remain after you? The conclusion may surprise you!
Consequences
The consequences of successful implementation of the project and the use of its results for every person in the world are:
- Understanding the basic foundations of our world, its essence and the meaning of life.
- Awareness of oneself, determination of one’s role and place in our world.
- Choosing the right path for personal development, your life and self-realization.
- Choosing a profession and subject area that matches your talent and purpose (career orientation).
- Developing the qualities of a successful and effective person and achieving optimal success and efficiency.
- Using personal resources to create, improve our lives and our world.
- Creating a happy, balanced, comfortable life.
- Establishing trusting, long-term relationships and creating synergy.
- Overcoming all obstacles, fears and problems.
- Achieving freedom and harmony in life.
- Improving our world in all aspects and creating harmony in it.
A person’s personal mission, what is it?
A person’s mission is not about material achievements, it is about whether someone benefited from these achievements.
The mission is often mentioned in business, less often in personal life, but it exists. We wrote earlier about the purpose of man. With the help of a correctly found purpose, the mission is realized, a person feels happy and feels harmony in life.
Personal mission is the purpose for which a person’s soul comes to earth . But we don’t know this goal, we need to find it and realize it. As soon as you find your mission and begin to implement it, your life will gain meaning, you will wake up in the morning with joy and go to fulfill your destiny.
A correctly found purpose makes us not only happy, but sometimes rich. This is not always the case, but it often happens.
Example of Bill Gates, Henry Ford. Sometimes the mission is inherent in us by nature. Napoleon Hill's book tells the story of his son Blair, who was born without ears and was deaf from birth. Surprisingly, the father wanted to solve his son's problem and did it. At first they realized that there is “bone conduction” for sounds, and this is exactly how Napoleon Hill’s son listened to the gramophone, holding the gramophone handle in his teeth and indicating with signs whether he liked the melody or not.
Blair's father had great faith in what his son would one day hear. Therefore, he educated him and taught him to develop his ability to hear “by bone conduction.”
Blair went to public school, read lips a lot and tried very hard. And one day a hearing aid manufacturer brought him a hearing aid that allowed him to hear the world, different sounds. The boy liked it so much that he decided to devote his life to this and help other people like him hear. This is how his destiny was realized, and his mission turned out to be not only to help similar people, but also to gain faith in himself the way his father taught him to do!
The mission does not always concern health problems; sometimes it is a childhood dream or talent hidden from prying eyes. Remember the film “Forgotten Melody for Flute”. Leonid Filatov very convincingly played Filimonov, who constantly struggles with his self, and the flute reminds him of this. And nurse Lida is the only one who understands his long-standing passion for the flute, dancing to this music. Filimonov’s mission was completely different, perhaps somehow connected with the flute...
If you don't follow your mission, then...
Let's give an example of not realizing your mission. You have a car, but you don’t drive it or carry anyone, and it sits idle. Or there is a new sewing machine in the house and you know how to sew well, but it also gathers dust and a child plays on it, spins the wheel of the machine... Over time, everything will rust and become unusable. This benefits no one. But you can take your relatives on trips by car, and use a sewing machine to sew things for your loved ones.
And your life now may be like an “endless struggle with obstacles”; you can survive, but there is little pleasure from such a life.
Sometimes the mission does not coincide at all with what the person actually does. He loves, for example, embroidery, but he lives thanks to the fact that he works as a financier in a company, or as a manager. The profession does not bring pleasure, but it helps to live. That’s why no one is calling for you to give up everything and embroider.
If this is not possible, then just improve your “embroidery” skill in your free time, perhaps someday there will be time and you will be able to monetize this skill, and then do something for the benefit of others.
Values and ultimate experiences
You should begin to implement any tactical or strategic decision only when the final goal is known. And the amount of responsibility that a decision imposes on a person is directly proportional to the scale of the final goal.
In order to make an adequate strategic decision and determine what goals we would like to achieve, we first need to decide what is of significant value to us in life, that is, to formulate our life values.
The role of practical life instructions proposed by Stephen Covey can be played by a “Declaration of Personal Mission”, in which you formulate your main tasks in this world - what is of decisive importance to us and what we intend to achieve.
A consistent logical transition from current small tasks to larger-scale goals that encompass them can allow a more specific definition of significant values. For example: “Why am I mastering these exercises?
Obviously, to become healthier, get rid of painful addictions and increase your energy level. ... Why do I need all this? – I intend to devote more time to work and do it faster and better, this will help me improve the quality of sleep and rest. ... Why is this fundamentally important to me? “I intend to achieve independence and freedom.” So, in just 3-4 consecutive logical moves, we can get closer to the level of global principles, goals and values that guide us.
Having clarified your goals, you need to prioritize them. So, for example, among the values we mentioned family and career. Let's try to simulate a situation in which we have to choose between our values. Let this be an urgent phone call obliging us to immediately go to the airport to conclude a contract that will determine our entire future career. The client is ready to meet and he only has half an hour before his flight.
We understand that fate gives us a chance and we cannot miss it. We get into the car, and then another call comes - from the hospital where our child ended up after a car accident. Being in a state of shock, he asks his father to come. Refusal, as doctors explained, can cause serious complications with unpredictable consequences.
Thus, we imagine ourselves in a situation where there can be only one decision and we will have to make a choice in favor of values that are more meaningful to us. And this choice for us will mean not just a decision - it will be an act committed against the backdrop of extreme experiences. It is in actions performed in such extreme situations that a person’s personality is formed. Having made a difficult choice in favor of some values one day, we, guided by the experience gained, will be able to apply the acquired knowledge in everyday life. Of course, in this case, the alternative to which we preferred another choice in the limiting situation is not canceled. It only shifts in time to the future with a decrease in the likelihood of its implementation. By performing everyday micro-actions, we maintain the logic of choice and, thereby, implement our own, and not someone else’s, values.
An important addition to the personal mission are the principles that form the basis of our actions in various directions. They can be compared to the basis of our personal strategy. This set of principles will help you formulate a strategy for personal and professional growth. This also includes the principles of decision-making and ethical standards that we intend to adhere to in everyday life and activities.
How to find out your mission?
Everything must be done in writing, it’s more clear. Grab a notepad and start writing! The search for a mission can be indirect, and that’s all. Sometimes it is quite complex and encrypted. But we need to figure it out...
Option #1 Remember and write down what you would like to do if, for example, you had a lot of money and didn’t have to go to work.
There can be a lot of activities. Write them all down...
Option No. 2 Sometimes you can expand the list a little and write 50, or better yet 100, of your desires and divide them into three columns:
- Be
- Do
- Have
Why 100 wishes? As a rule, this is difficult to do, usually everything ends at 10-25 desires. And as psychologists believe, only with 50 desires do the “hints” of your intuition begin, and your most cherished desires are pulled out from the bins of memory...
From this wish list, leave the ones that are “to be” and “to do.” Rank these desires in order of desirability. And look at what activities they can be realized, and what benefits not only for yourself, but also for others you can bring.
Option #3 Think about what you do best in life, what are people willing to pay you money for?
If you can’t identify this activity yourself, ask your friends and acquaintances, someone will definitely tell you about it. Try this! Some cook borscht well, while others make cutlets and Napoleon cake like no one else. It seems like a simple product, but it turns out delicious. And you are thanked for this skill.
Maybe someone is interested in photography and makes photo albums, or knows how to tell stories that the guide doesn’t tell on excursions... Look for your talent. It may be hidden from everyone, and you yourself may not even notice it. Close friends will help and “open” your eyes. Don’t bury your talent, but try to realize it in your free time... Get pleasure that you will remember for a long time!
Means of mission implementation
The main means
To achieve this goal, a unified system of personal development of a person is being developed within the project, using a systematic approach and allowing us to understand the essence of our world, understand ourselves and take our place in it.
technologies are being developed within the framework of this system
.
To understand the meaning of life, a systemic concept of the world
, according to which everything in the world is a system that has characteristics and properties and has a hierarchical structure. Those. Each system is simultaneously part of a more complex supersystem and consists of simpler subsystems.
To increase awareness, we are developing determination methods
:
- Personal talent of a person
- His character
- Temperament
- Purpose
- Life goals
- Vocations
- Personal mission
- Principles
- values
To create harmony in life, a strategy for achieving harmony
, which currently consists of the following stages:
- Understand and accept the meaning of life.
- Become aware of yourself, the world around you and your role in it.
- Understand the laws of harmony and apply them in practice.
- Establish balance in life.
- It is mutually beneficial to interact and create trusting relationships.
- Become free.
- Learn to overcome obstacles (fears, uncertainty, problems).
To realize personal purpose, a strategy of self-realization
, which now consists of the following stages:
- To develop to an optimal state in accordance with talent and purpose, in which a person will be most successful and effective.
- Engage in creativity in accordance with talent, calling and purpose.
- Become purposeful and concentrate only on things that help you realize yourself.
- Become confident and expand your comfort zone.
- Create inner harmony and become free.
- Be courageous and turn problems into opportunities for success.
- Sincerely believe in personal destiny, be persistent and determined in realizing it.
Currently, more than 80 practical, proven methods and technologies
, which are part of the personal development system. They allow you to fully realize yourself, achieve harmony, become free, increase personal success and efficiency for full self-realization, improve our world and create harmony in it.
Mission VS Dreams
So what is the difference between a mission and a dream?
- A mission defines your purpose. This is what you want to achieve ultimately: in your career, life, personal life. The mission is specific and can be measured.
- A dream is something more emotional and inspiring. It expresses your core values and how you will apply them to your mission.
With experience, your dreams, ideals and values may change. Therefore, review them from time to time so as not to end up in a dead end.
Creating a Dream
Creating a dream consists of four sequential actions:
1
Define the humanitarian side of your mission
You've already created one sentence that describes your life's mission. Look at it and think about the following questions:
- What's the most exciting thing about what you want to do?
- What exactly influences your emotions?
- How will this help other people?
2
Create a list of your values
Values can be:
- Altruism
- Search for happiness
- Liberty
- Moderation
- Mastery
- Stability
- Perfection
Spend enough time to realize what excites and attracts you most.
3
Visualize the image of yourself you want to achieve
Imagine an image of your best self. Are you a strong leader in the future? Mentor? A pleasant conversationalist and person? Make a list of words that best describe the person you want to become.
4
Combine the previous three steps
Now write down one single phrase that describes your dream. It should inspire and motivate, filled with energy and passion when you read it. And of course, don’t forget to perfect it over time.
If you want to better understand the characteristics of your personality, then sign up for our online course on self-knowledge, which, with the help of special psychological tests and exercises, will help you better understand yourself.
We wish you good luck!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Congruence: A Beginner's Guide
- Practical benefits of self-knowledge
- Finding your life mission
- Definition of values
- A Guide to Creating a Personal Development Plan
- Business strategy development
- Eight mistakes when setting goals
- Business motivation model
- Gamification in real life
- Personal Development Plan
Key words:1Self-knowledge
