Constructed in this way, the mission statements of our organizations can remind us of our priorities, foster a sense of accountability, and encourage us to persevere in the face of challenging conditions. Covey describes how families can create unique mission statements in open discussions to which all family members contribute. He also makes a convincing case for the personal mission statement as a handy reminder of our most cherished vision, values and goals. Although all of this makes a lot of sense, I had never actually taken the time to write a personal mission statement. Why bother, I thought.
Words are one thing, but deeds are another and, with limitations of time, deeds have to come first.
Now that, I thought, is a good example of a personal mission statement. Of course, if I were to adopt it as my own, I might be expecting more of myself than I could reasonably hope to accomplish, and I wouldn't want to make life harder than it already is. On the other hand, everything sounds better in Latin and this one was already translated. As a matter of fact, the first page of every chapter carried a different inspirational Latin phrase. As I thought about sitting in Latin class, flipping ahead in the book to read the important sounding words, the phrases started coming back to me, one by one.