Personal Mission Statements? Who reads them?

If you’ve ever been in the job market, you are familiar with those letters where they tell you that you are awesome, but they have decided to move forward with another candidate.  Some letters are personalized and nicer, and some are just a dry cut and paste template that seems AI-generated.

Nevertheless, there’s always hope that the letter was written by Steve Harvey, and that somehow he made the same mistake he did back in Miss Universe 2015 when he gave the crown to the wrong person.  You may start adding more hope into the equation, if you start thinking that there was also a mix-up two years after at the Oscars between La La Land and Moonlight.  

You may go through denial, isolation, bargaining, and try to experience the 5 stages of grief all at once, and radically change your perspective, your everything, and start a new chapter in your life.  Or you could do something very simple. Go back to your documents, and read your personal mission statement to remind you of your objectives, why you’re doing what you’re doing and who are you doing it for.

You see, big brands create mission statements to align stakeholders with a long-term mission.  Although some of us might not be appreciative of a long self-analysis process, going through the steps to discover what your raw materials are (strengths, weaknesses, values, and personality) will give you the tools to formulate a simple statement that may not be necessary to scream them to the world, but just like with big brands, will help you maintain a true north, and realign yourself with the long-term goals and aspirations when the email notification pops up and you find that dream job rejection letter.

So to answer the question in the header, Who reads your Personal Mission Statement? It’s simple.  It’s personal. It’s you.  

And just in case that you are curious about mine… here it is:

“To apply my creative marketing skills and work with an organization that celebrates diversity and values by supporting the free flow of ideas in the creation of content that improves family and community experiences, using culture and arts, as the channel”