I love when clients try and tell me they are just a mom, or only an artist, or just a blogger. I really try and hold back the laughter as I almost scream, “are you kidding me, you are so unique and so cool!” I know I get paid to coach military spouses, but I swear the love is free.
I have been coaching for fifteen years and what I am learning is the most important concept that I coach people on is how to learn to be OK being themselves. It sounds so easy but it isn’t. Military Spouses usually call me and want to start working together because they are facing a struggle, feeling unhealthy, struggling to find a portable job, or struggling with a deployment and want support or need advise on how to make their marriage stronger but all of my coaching comes down to learning how to love and accept ourselves and what I am discovering is that we need to learn about who we are in order to be able to define what we want. This month’s blog posts are about how to write a personal mission statements that support the idea that we are all unique and once we define who we are we can really soar.
Mission statements are unique declarations that describe how we do things when we are “at our best.” Organizations use these documents to clarify their overall purpose; therefore, different organizational cultures have radically different mission statements.
I like asking my coaching clients to come up with their own mission statements to help them really think about their ideal lives and accept that they are totally unique and totally cool and can tackle anything once they decide to shine. While my regular readers may note that I’ve discussed this topic previously, I’d like to take this opportunity to delve further into the process of creating one’s mission statement—after all, the task can be a bit daunting for some of us!
What Makes You Shine As Military Spouse?
Start the process of writing your mission statement by reflecting on your past and choosing five accomplishments of which you are especially proud; things that make you shine! Then, consider the habits, actions, and behaviors that led to these particular successes. Ask yourself, “how would I teach these competencies to someone else?”
After you’ve written a sentence or two about teaching others, contemplate your answers. Then, write a few sentences about the insights you’ve realized from this process. Ask yourself, “what does my writing tell me about how I work best?”
Now you have the basic components of your own personal mission statement—this paragraph of “explanations” effectively demonstrates how you best operate! Just make sure to word everything positively so that the paragraph inspires you to keep moving forward.
Military Spouses Leaping Towards Success
You are already taking baby steps towards your goals, but every now and then you might decide you are ready to take a bigger leap and I am here as your coach to encourage you to take those big leaps whenever you are ready! I am constantly meeting military spouses that don’t give themselves enough credit, you women rock! You are so unique and so special and I am just here to remind you that you are already pretty great. I know you can look at some past accomplishments that you might have forgotten or not given yourself enough credit for accomplishing at the time. By reminding yourself of this greatness you really set the stage to attract more achievement toward you, because what we focus on grows! Including this important aspect in your mission statement thus allows you to more easily make progress toward reaching both your seasonal and long-term goals regarding health, wealth, and relationships.
Plus, this progress will be made in a way that works best for your individual needs and aptitudes. Once you have completed this assignment and formed the basis of your mission statement, try reading your paragraph out loud.
You may need to tweak it a bit to make the language more positive and personal, but don’t give up. Remember that you can continue changing your mission statement over time so that it best fits your current, shifting needs.
Create Your Unique Military Spouse Mission Statement
If you are on my email list you already got this exercise in your inbox. If you are a new blog reader make sure to sign up! www.militaryspousecoach.com/freebie and you will get exercises like this one emailed to you every month. Please share with other motivated military spouses too.
Take out a piece of paper and list five personal accomplishments you have experienced as a military spouse—things of which you are especially proud—in a single sentence each.
For each of those items, describe the habits, skills, and abilities that allowed you to succeed as a military spouse thus far. Try to keep each answer to a single sentence, if possible. This brevity will make it easier to turn these ideas into a mission statement in the end.
Combine these last five sentences to create an entire paragraph and cut out anything that doesn’t still feel like you. You may need to do some editing to ensure that the statement makes sense and is worded in a positive manner but you are nearly there! Cross out any repeated items and rewrite the revised paragraph—this will be your new mission statement, your ‘MO’ in life
After completing this exercise, you should have a statement of 2-3 sentences that feels super inspiring and super unique—it should make you want to take action on your goals! Now that you have this document as your personal blueprint, you will begin to attract success effortlessly.
Please complete the exercise and then leave a comment below regarding how you are using your personal mission statements and include your initials or your name and your business and we can all cheer each other on.