This week’s focus is constructing a mission statement. As part of this mission statement, there are three questions that I need to answer:

1. Who do I want to be?

2. What do I want to accomplish, and how do I want to contribute to society?

3. What are my values and beliefs? I need to think about how these values will determine who I want to be, and how I want to get there.

Today, I am going to answer the first question on this list: Who do I want to be?

There are several ways I could go about answering this question. Do I define my ideal self by my career? By my values? By my daily routine? By the people in my life? I think that it’s a combination of all of these things. I’m going to begin by exploring what I want for my future (As a side note, I am not including any physical achievements in this mission statement. The future is whatever proceeds this current moment, and so there should be nothing stopping me from being who I want to be right now. Right?). I have decided to write each of these “wants” in the present tense, because I believe that if you think about your goals in future tense – they will always be in future tense.

I am brave (I define bravery as going for your dreams even though you’re scared. I don’t think it means being without any fear at all).

I am self-confident. I actually found a great quote on what self-confidence is in a book I’m reading called The Mindful Way through Anxiety: Break Free from Chronic Worry and Reclaim Your Life:

“People often think of self-confidence as a state in which a person has no self-doubt, fear, or negative, self-evaluations. It is probably more accurate (and useful) to think of self-confidence as trusting or having faith in oneself, even in the face of fear.”

I am grounded. As mentioned before, in the past I have found it difficult to not worry, and experience anxiety, about events coming up in the future. I have decided to incorporate mindfulness practice into my daily routine to help me cope with my overactive imagination.

I am present.This sort of goes along with being grounded. I want to be a person who lives moment to moment, and who is completely open to something unexpected and wonderful dropping into their life. I can start enjoying life and living spontaneously right now. I don’t want to live in a constant state of waiting. I can make the choice to just live and be happy during every moment of my life. In this state of allowing, I know that amazing opportunities are going to enter into my life.

I am joyful. I should be laughing everyday. Life is not meant to be hard, it is meant to be a journey filled with joy, love, and triumph.

I am creative. True, I already see myself as being a creative person. Where I struggle, is believing that my stories are worth sharing. I also struggle with believing in myself as an actor, and believing that I am capable of becoming another person in order to tell their story. I want to be confident in my ability as a story-teller and as a creator.

I am funny. Is it such a bad thing to want to make people laugh? I would love to be in a comedy. I would love to play a comedic character. You can’t really be funny without believing that you have something to say. All of these things are correlated.

I am healthy. I really believe in proper nutrition and exercise. I already think that I’m reasonably healthy, but I think that I could be even more on top of my health. My ultimate morning routine has me waking up at 6:00am, doing an hour workout, showering, making my lunch and enjoying a healthy breakfast, getting ready for the day, meditating/practicing mindfulness for 15 minutes, and then maybe also getting in a vocal workout (all before I start school at 10am). I’ve done this before, so I know it’s possible.

I am disciplined. The routine mentioned above requires that I behave with great discipline. You can only live one moment at a time. Who you are is defined by how you behave right now. Not by what you’ve done in the past or by what you plan to do in the future, but by the decisions you make right now. We can only ever exist in the present moment – this realization should actually take a lot of pressure off of you. It makes everything that you want to do seem so much more possible when you realize that all you need to control is what you do right now.

I am driven. I want to be constantly moving forward. There are so many things that three months ago I was afraid to do that I’m not anymore. I was afraid to write this blog and to share my feelings and thoughts with all of you. I was afraid to experiment with voices in Voice Over class, I was afraid to walk down the halls of my school with confidence, I was afraid to use my full voice, and I was afraid to speak in front of large groups of people. In the last three months I have faced all of these fears, and now I’m not afraid of them anymore. That’s what it takes in the end. It’s so important to face your fears, because only by doing this can you overcome your fears and grow. That thing you were afraid of will slowly move inside of your comfort zone, and when that happens… you search for that next thing that you’re afraid of and face it. The key is to be constantly evolving as a human being.

I am persistent. I don’t ever want to give up on my dreams. I never want to let someone tell me that I can’t do something. No one can ever have that power of me. i know what I can do, and it’s so important that I keep that belief in myself and push for what I want regardless of what anyone else says.

I am reliable. Finally, I want to be a good friend to those around me. I want to be someone that those I know can trust. I want people to know that they can depend on me. This doesn’t mean that I want the person that people walk all over. What I want is to be respected, and maybe even admired as a human being.

There is a lot that I want from my life, but I don’t think what I’ve talked about today is unreasonable. Tomorrow I will discuss what I want to accomplish. By Sunday of this week I will have a first draft of a mission statement. I will be able to hang that mission statement somewhere visible on my desk, and think about it everyday.

What’s you’re mission statement? Explore these questions yourself and, if you wish, share your thoughts in the comment section below.