I Will Not Quit on Myself

On June 24^th before I launched this blog, when I was still having some doubts about even creating it or putting it out into the world in the first place I wrote this message to myself as motivation:

I will not quit on myself. I will do all the things I fricking want to. I will not give up, I will continue. I will accomplish my goals. I will be my own person. I will do things. I will not be stopped by myself. I will kill myself. I will kill the old me, I will be a new person. I will overcome. I will help people; I will not focus so much on myself. I will be happy no matter what. I will find a sense of joy.

not give up, I will continue. I will accomplish my goals. I will be my own person. I will do things. I will not be stopped by myself. I will kill myself. I will kill the old me, I will be a new person. I will overcome. I will help people; I will not focus so much on myself. I will be happy no matter what. I will find a sense of joy.

So, even though it’s 2:30am and my friends are visiting and I’m tired, I want to honor this commitment I made to myself and continue to post articles twice a week. But I don’t want this post to be a cop-out either or just for the sake of posting something.

I want to talk about a personal mission statement I’ve been developing.

In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey highlights the importance of being a principle-centered and developing your own personalized mission statement. Once you clarify your principles through a written mission statement, it becomes easier to make the tough decisions and to live with integrity because you have a hand-crafted purpose for yourself.

I already have some principles for the blog. But, I have also been creating a mission statement for my personal life. This is what I have so far:

I will be better today than I was yesterday

Joy only comes through pain

I will challenge myself and put myself through pain until nothing can hurt me

I will continually ask “what if?”

The only failure is giving up

I will not quit

I will hold myself to a higher standard

I will be kind to everyone but tough on myself

I will think things through deeply and carefully

I will value my health, my body, my mind, my spirit

I will never stop learning

I am responsible for my response

I will remain positive

I will put my family above myself

I will contribute without being asked

I will be grateful

I will be a positive force in my family, among my friends, in my community

I will be completely present in conversation

I will lead by example

I will anticipate and plan for the worst*

7/13/2019

If you are interested in creating your own mission statement, here are some things to keep in mind: It is important to focus on all of your various roles (student/employee, child, sibling, friend, community member, parent) in your mission statement. Try to envision the person you want to be known as when you are 90 years old, or when you are dead. Picture the things that you know you should be doing but often neglect. For more inspiration and to help craft your own mission statement, I recommend you check out www.franklincovey.com/MSB.

*This is my ideal version of myself. Of course, I do not live up to it most of the time, but I will still strive to be better every day. I fail at it most days but I will not quit on myself.