Day 31: The Mission Statement

The Mission Statement:  Day 7 (based on Creating a New Mission Statement from the New York Times).

For the past week I have written blog posts that answered the following seven questions:

• How do you want to be remembered?
• How do you want people to describe you?
• Who do you want to be?
• Who or what matters most to you?
• What are your deepest values?
• How would you define success in your life?
• What makes your life really worth living?

My reason for answering these questions was to find out what motivates me, what I'd like to achieve in my life, and what things are important to me.  Once I knew these things I would, hopefully, be able to craft a personal mission statement.  The idea being that this mission statement could serve as a guide for how I live my life in the thousands of days that lie between tomorrow and death.  

I admit at first I was skeptical.  I was not sure that I'd finish the week with anything close to resembling a mission statement.  As I answered the questions each day it began to become clear that there were definitely some recurring themes in my responses: art/creating, my relationships with people and my community, attaining intellectual knowledge, and exploring/experiencing as much of the world as I can.  

It also became quite clear that my mission statement would not be a simple one.  However, I have, as of 3:26 PM today, achieved my goal (though I'm pretty sure it won't fit easily onto a cross stitch pillow)...

I want to live my life in a fashion that is true to my self, my values and beliefs.  I want to continue to create and explore art in its infinite variety of forms; to expand my intellectual knowledge and grow my mind; to experience more of the world both at home and abroad; and to cultivate and foster personal connection with individuals and my community.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I think I may have just given myself a pretty neat gift.   I feel as though I am starting this next year of life with a little more self-knowledge than I had eight days ago. 

Today also marks the end of two months of daily blogging. I entertained the idea of doing one more month but my life is very full right now so after today I'll be changing to weekly posts.  

Thank you to everyone has been reading over the past two months.  I'll "see" you later on this week.