Tag: mission statement

My Mission Statement(s)

Daily writing prompt
What is your mission?
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I learned about mission statements as a professor, when an assignment I inherited was to make students write professional mission statements. The source I found said that mission statements should be short and explain what one wants to accomplish but not how. I use that definition still.

I believe in mission statements. I think it’s motivating to have a statement to look at that gives direction and inspiration. Unlike a motivational statement, a mission is tailored to the individual.

I don’t have a personal mission. I think this is a bad thing, because it means I drift from day to day, doing what I need to do. And in a way, I think that is true. Perhaps it’s because I’m over sixty, or because I don’t feel driven to do things the way I used to. Perhaps it’s because I’m being treated for bipolar. At any rate, I have no personal mission.

I do have a teaching mission and a writing mission, however. Maybe it’s because those are things I do rather than who I am. My teaching mission is to give people the ‘Aha!’ reaction. Notice it’s short and sweet and does not talk about how. It’s my responsibility to make the ‘aha’ part of how I teach. My writing mission is to make fantasies romantic and romances fantastic. As I write fantasy romance and romantic fantasy, this is an accurate mission, even with the wordplay.

I still think I need that personal mission. I don’t want anything trite or false. I want a catchy mission because I like words, or as a friend once said, “words like me”. Maybe something like to make my life an ‘aha’ experience. That’s close. Let me think about it.

Mission and Vision Statements (Personal Development)



Mission and Vision

Mission statements for writers encapsulate who we are as writers. Vision statements propel us forward. It’s nice to have both, because writers have to deal with a lot of delayed gratification. Missions and visions motivate, much in the same way as 


Mission Statements
I found source material that describes how to write a mission statement better than I ever could. Here you go. If you are not a writer and you want a personal mission statement, go here. 

Here is my mission statement using their methodology:

My Mission Statement:
I am a chronicler of an earth filled with unusual talents, both inborn and gifted.  My readers delve into their reading and love exploring the unknown and preternatural in their own world. I ground my fantasy with sociology, psychology, and humor. I write to create modern mythologies that could be right before our eyes if we knew where to look. I plan to write short stories and novels, and to obtain a traditional publishing contract in the next five years.

Vision Statements: I didn’t learn them this way
Writing a vision statement seems a bit more difficult, especially as all the sources I read about writers’ vision statements seem to refer to mission statements, and mission and vision statements are not the same thing. Vision statements describe where we want to be five or ten years down the road. This one, however, gets close, if a little long. For non-authors, this worksheet may be helpful for both writers and non-authors, but it will yield a longer vision statement.

I learned vision statements as a very short blurb describing one’s future trajectory. Thus, my vision statement is shorter than those in the links.

My Vision Statement:
My vision is to be a published author of contemporary fantasy by a well-regarded publishing house. My works will introduce a modern mythology for the 21st century which detail the preternatural shoulder-to-shoulder with the mundane.

A Takeaway
Write a mission and a vision statement. Hang them on your wall or put them on the desktop of your computer. Use them to focus, use them to reassure yourself that the work is worth it. And tell me how it goes: lleachie@gmail.com