Jeffrey C. Long

I found this Personal Mission Statement builder at the Life Hacker blog.

I’ve been building up my “Getting Things Done” muscle by reading the book by David Allen and reading the website and google group 43folders. From there I’ve been learning the difference between strategy and tactics in accomplishing life goals. Strategy is the big picture “macro” view of the things you are trying to accomplish. This Personal Mission Statement builder is an example of getting the macro view. Tactics is the little picture “micro” view of the steps you will take to accomplish the little tasks necessary to accomplish a given goal. “Getting things done” is all about tactics. Steven Covey’s “First things first” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective people” are all about strategy. Both are good in their own place. But I’ve been learning that tactics are the most important tool to making things happen. Nonetheless, vision/mission/values statements are important guides to what it is that we will accomplish. They just aren’t helpful with how we will accomplish it.

From Lifehacker post:

Some may find the concept of a “personal mission statement” as cringeworthy as that Successories poster on the bosses’ wall that reads “Dare to Soar.” However, the Franklin Covey web site has an, ahem, wizard to help you create your personal mission statement.

Yes, it’s insane that a Flash application on a web page with lots of inspirational quotes, elevator music and photos of happy people would purport to help you define your life mission with a few canned questions. BUT, the exercise is a short and possibly interesting one, as you may come out with values and goals you might not predict.