A guy named Mark commented on my last post. Go ahead and read it. Today’s post basically answers some of his questions. If you create a mission statement, you then use that vision as the acid test for your success. The best of all worlds is when your job is directly related to the accomplishment of your mission statement. When you can make money fulfilling your mission statement, how can it get any better? However, there are millions who simply cannot do that. The best example I use is of a guy who goes to the church I used to pastor. He is a mailman, but in his “Mission Life” he teaches and leads in the children’s ministry. He is phenomenal at what he does. He always has been. His mission, his vision, his purpose, is to teach kids about God. That is where he gets his fulfillment. He works as a mailman to feed his family, but his mission is completely outside of his career.
Many people have this situation. If you can’t make money fulfilling your vision, then you find other ways to do it. To be completely honest, many of you are in jobs where you can’t tie it in to solving a major problem in the world. It is what it is. Nevertheless.
Let’s worry about how to tie in your career into your mission statement later. Look up some examples of mission statements. What defines you? Many people choose general statements like “To be the best dad in the world” or “To serve God with all of my heart.” Those of course are great, but it’s way too broad and doesn’t answer what’s unique to YOU. What I would suggest is turn those examples into values, because that is what they are. Your values guide you in the accomplishment of your mission.
My mission statement is: “To blow away the bell curve in everything I do . . . with the Kingdom of God receiving the benefits.” Blowing away the bell curve is the core of my mission statement. It’s a war on mediocrity. The bell curve describes the distribution of people in a given area. The most familiar bell curve relates to the disbursement of kids on the their grades. However, you can use it in any area. Your job: what percentile rank are you among your co-workers? Blow away the bell curve by asking the question: What do the most successful people do in my situation?
We all want to get better and advance in our respective jobs, hobbies, etc. But when I talk to people why they aren’t advancing, they default to their circumstances or something outside of them that is keeping them from moving forward. It is the common human experience. Whoever says, “Well frankly, I’m not disciplined enough or tenacious enough to find ways around the obstacles in my way nor do I respond effectively when I fail. My circumstances certainly hinder me, but frankly it’s my own damn fault.” WHO SAYS THAT? No one!!!
A powerful question I asked myself early on was this: “Is there anyone who has it worse than I do yet is very successful?” The answer is an obvious “yes”, so then I ask, “What are they doing to be successful? What are they doing to overcome obstacles, to overcome the exact same things I am facing?” They are on the top end of the bell curve. Why? Because they are not in the majority. The majority of people allow things outside of themselves to stop them dead in their tracks. They don’t have the emotional tenacity or confidence to overcome obstacles. They are in the comfort zone. They aren’t experiencing a great deal of turmoil in mediocrity, so they float in the sea of average on the inner tubes of how bad they have it. Well gee Mr. Al Bundy, is there anyone that has it harder than you and yet is blowing away their circumstances? Ummmm, yep! Man! Ugh! It drives me insane!
You need a mission statement. A statement that you can walk away from and say, “If I don’t accomplish that or live that, my life means nothing.” Can you verbalize the exact thing that is your destiny, your calling, your passion, your reason for living? No? Well then, I think we have our answer as to why you are in the middle of the bell curve with all of the masses of people who are mediocre. The worst people? Those who are crushingly average yet think they are awesome. Wow. I know a lot of those. Just shake your head and be grateful you’re not that blind.
Enough about them. What drives you insane about the world? What do you need to do in order to fire up the Iron Man core?


