How To Develop A Mission

One of our deepest source of anxiety comes from a rather interesting problem: the challenge of figuring out what to do next in our lives. It is a common unease communicated as a sense of feeling like a plastic bag floating through the wind. It is a feeling quick to point to the progress of our peers and the lack of it in our own lives.

We crave for a sense that suggests that things are moving forward. That we are in touch with the aspects of our lives that needs us: our talents are being put to proper use; our emotional needs are being met and understood; that at any point in time we are being the best version of ourselves.

This BasicPulse entry aims to suggest a way to dispel this feeling, to help tackle the challenge of figuring out what to do next and to ignite a sense that at any point in time in our lives we are in tune with the best version of what we carry in ourselves. 

The Idea of a Mission

If you walk into any well established organisation what you may notice is two plaques on the wall that hold the mission statement and vision statement of that organisation. And if you have attended a program where mission was the topic you might have heard preachings that suggest the importance of having such statements in your personal life. At the root of the message is the suggestion that once you write that statement everything else falls in it's right place. The message is passed along the line of a system that sounds like this: 

Know what you want > Develop a plan to get what you want > Use your plan to get what you want. 

This is what you might call the top-bottom approach to figuring out what you want, and ultimately what you are to do. You hear it in many forms: begin with the end, act the part you hope to be, know your calling. It is popular amongst those who promulgate the idea of having a purpose and doing nothing else but finding that purpose when you realise you do not have it in your grasp. 

One thing dismissed by those who promulgate the top-bottom approach to finding a mission is the trickiness of adopting one. We hear that we must give response to questions such as these: 

Why do you exist? 
What kind of work, life, life-style do you want (that will further why you exist)? 
What are the values or beliefs that inform you and your work?
What would you ultimately hope to accomplish as a result of your efforts?
How do you plan to work toward this broad vision?

Important as they may be focusing on these questions, at least in my experience, entertains too many variable that blinds us to the action-steps needed to bridge the gap that separates where we find ourselves and where we would like to be. 

The top-bottom approach can be useful however it dismisses a central truth: knowing what you want is difficult (and most of us may never experience an opening cloud that calls us into what we are to be). It also induces a pressure that needn't exist in our lives: that of being in a constant search (with little guidance or a trustworthy method to tease out what lies at the top). 

But there is another approach. One that David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, says never misses in it's delivery to create productive alignment in our lives. It is the bottom-top approach:

Use your plan to get what you want > Develop a plan to get what you want > Know what you want. 

In other words start from what you have (your interests, your aptitudes, your skills) and build things up as you go. Work forward from promising situations rather than back from an ultimate goal, purpose or calling. 

The idea of a mission is interesting. Cal Newport, one the most insightful career advisors of our age, calls it the dream job elixir. He describes it as the unifying statement that accords focus to careers; a rare trait required for loving what you do; the one thing that brings guidance and direction to your life, and gives a response to the question: what do I do with my life? 

In The Book of Life, a web book initiated by phenomenal author and philosopher Alain de Botton, is a Mission Development System adopted by world class space exploration pioneer Elon Musk. In a chapter of the book titled Finding a Mission we read:

When the entrepreneur Elon Musk was at university, he asked himself very explicitly what his mission in life would be. He began by wondering what the world needed most urgently, then he looked into himself to see what his talents were and that led him to a list of four possible missions: space exploration, electric transportation, Artificial Intelligence and rewriting the human genome. In the end, Elon Musk chose the first two.

An alternative rendition of this advice is offered by the great mind of Cal Newport. He suggests that career capital, skills you have that can be used as leverage in defining your career, makes it possible to identify a mission. 

The reason I celebrate this approach is because it echoes a long time BasicPulse philosophy: do the best with what you have. And goes on to further to suggest that you posses sufficient know-how to match your best with the best that is in the world. 

It’s one thing to having a guiding philosophy, it's another to ensure that the guidance of that philosophy translates into action. For this reason here is a list of three action steps you can use to develop a mission for yourself:

1. Answer: Among all the problems facing humanity, what are the ones that properly interest me?

Here are a few to get ideas flowing: injustice, inequality, depression, prejudice, unemployment, misemployment, maleducation, poverty, anxiety etc. 

2. Answer: What actions do I deploy with ease? Or what truly are my talents?

Here are a few to get ideas flowing: singing, writing, dancing, thinking, walking, talking (a.k.a speaking), eating, teaching, reading, using a computer program, solving math, etc. 

3. Input your responses into this formula: I can use (this skill or deploy this collection of actions) to (do something exciting that will bring an ease to a difficulty I find interesting/important).

Or in more simple terms: I can (insert action) to (insert what an ease to a problem you highlighted looks like). 

Here are few examples to get ideas flowing:

I can write to change the way people understand race
I can think to bring astronomical solutions to world energy needs. 
I can sing to uproot the interpersonal barriers that result from inequality
I can read to further findings in astronomy
I can teach to engage the interest of children in music

It’s important to add that you take your time in doing this exercise. To entertain the reality that it may require a lot of introspection, counselling and experimentation. To ensure that the (tentative) missions you produce are truly yours and not those chorused by others (who are sometimes well-meaning but end up doing great damage). That you favour precision over grandness, approval and glamour. 

The challenge of figuring out what to do next in our lives is interesting because at the other side of the problem lies what is most important: our interests. It might be tempting to let go of our interests, to immerse ourselves in the practical side of life, or to entertain vague ideas that suggest we wait until a defining moment calls us. However in truth our interests point us to our ultimate goals, signalling us through dreams hopes, and aspirations. They hope we might accord them much needed attention so that they might take us to where we hope to be. Look to them and distill from them missions that guide your life. 

Enjoy! 

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Post Author: P. W. Uduk 
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Photo Source: www.linkedin.com

Question of the week: What ideas, methods and philosophies do you use in guiding your life? 

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