Create a personal purpose statement to define your mission

As a human being, you are unique and full of potential. If you are struggling to define your role within a career, however, you might benefit from deliberately crafting a personal purpose statement.

What is a personal purpose statement?

Also known as a personal mission statement, this is a pithy statement that defines an individual and reveals their mission. It might also explain how you plan to fulfill that mission and why it matters.

You can find great personal purpose statement examples from business leaders like Oprah Winfrey: "To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be." Organizations may also develop personal mission or purpose statements, like Habitat for Humanity’s: "Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope."

If you don’t know how to write a personal statement of purpose, you can start with a personal mission statement template.

Use the personal mission and purpose statement template in Lucidspark

With Lucidspark’s personal mission and purpose statement template, you can develop your own personal mission statement to share or keep for your own personal use. You can revisit it to make adjustments and fine-tune it over time, as well as use it with group exercises such as the team purpose activity.

To use the personal mission and purpose statement template in Lucidspark, add it to your whiteboard and answer the questions on the template starting from the outside:

• What do you love?
• What does the world need?
• What can you be paid for?
• What are you good at?

Add sticky notes with your answers to the relevant sections. Just like a Venn diagram, each place with overlapping circles should fit the criteria of both of the individual circles.

For the personal mission and purpose statement template, the places where two circles overlap define your passion, mission, vocation, and profession, which will all be essential considerations in your personal mission statement. Add sticky notes with relevant items to these areas.

Then consider the areas where three circles overlap. These represent areas where an essential element is missing. For instance, if you have items that you love, that you’re good at, and that the world needs but you don’t get paid for, you end up "happy and satisfied, but with no wealth."

Finally, move to where all four circles overlap. This area represents your purpose, dream career, or life mission. Use what you have learned from the other areas of the template to sum up the most essential elements and find a way to word your personal mission statement.

To stay focused as you work, you can use tools like the timer. You can also bring in ideas from other places with Lucidspark’s integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Drive.