statement of purpose, incorporate insights from Scholtes’ work on systems. Understand that all systems, including individuals and organizations, inherently have a purpose that can range from implicit to explicit, and from ineffective to highly influential. For organizations, strong strategic leadership enhances the clarity and utility of their purpose. Similarly, individuals should define their purpose thoughtfully, as it represents their essential reason for being and their intended impact on larger systems. This purpose is fundamental in deriving meaning from life and work.
[YOUR NAME]
Course Name [xxx] [Semester] 202?
[YOUR NAME]
Course Name [xxx] [Semester] 202?
Guiding Stars Statements
Use this template as a guide to write concise and memorable personal statements or concise summaries of your purpose, your values, your vision, your mission, and your long-term goals. (When you finish, you should delete the italicized instructions.)
Use these “guiding stars” to help you make choices in every situation in life, so that you become the architect or designer or engineer of your life, you become the construction manager of your life, you proactively live your life from the inside-out, rather than being lived outside-in by people and forces external to you.
purpose
Your purpose is your raison d'être or reason-for-being; it is your intended relationship to and impact upon the larger systems of which you are a part; it is the basis for finding meaning in your life and work.
You should try to articulate your purpose concisely in one to three sentences that can be memorized (when the statement has been iteratively revised and becomes stable).
Values
To write a statement of your values, reflect first upon your purpose and the logical implications of your purpose for the things in your life that are most important to you.
Your values align with your purpose and are "the things you value." Your values inform your conscience and perspectives on priorities; and therefore, your values should guide your seeing, thinking, feeling, deciding, speaking, acting, and becoming.
You should try to articulate your most important values in five to eight bulleted and complete sentences.
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Vision
To write a statement of your vision , " begin with the end in mind." Think of coming to the end of your life journey.
Who do you want to become? Think about the person you want to be, i.e., the person you want to grow into through a lifetime of learning-by-doing.
What do you want to achieve ? Think about the most important, enduring, meaningful accomplishments that you want your life to realize.
You should try to articulate your vision concisely in one to three sentences that can be memorized (when the statement has been iteratively revised and become stable).
mission
To write a statement of your mission, think of how you want to proceed toward your vision.
Your mission is what you want to do and how you want to do it, i.e., your modus operandi or way of doing things to progress effectively from one long-term goal or milepost to another towards your vision, and aligned with your values and your purpose.
You should try to articulate your mission concisely in one to three sentences that can be memorized (when the statement has been iteratively revised and become stable).
long-term goals
In light of your purpose (your reason for being and compass direction in life), your values (the things you consider important guidelines for your life), your vision (who you want to become, and what you want to achieve in your life), and your mission (your modus operandi or how you go about moving forward on your journey), delineate your long-term goals so they stretch from today to the end of your journey or to the realization of your vision or destination.
Long-term goals are the things you must achieve as you execute your mission to progress towards your vision. They are like the mileposts on a highway that mark your progress on a road trip from one city to another. Your long-term goals should be created from the inside-out and aligned with your mission, your vision, your values, and your purpose.
The strategies you develop because of good strategic thinking, leading, and managing help you to progress effectively from one long-term goal to the next on your journey to your ultimate vision of your life and career.
You should try to articulate your most important long-term goals in five to eight bulleted, complete sentences. They should cover the time of your journey from today to the end of your life. You should use sound goal-setting theory to develop S.M.A.R.T. long-term goals, because research shows that these kinds of goals powerfully influence our success.
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Summary
The more you meditate on and mull over these guiding stars and seek to articulate in writing your position on each, the clearer your ideas will be.
As you use these guiding stars to navigate your journey through time, you will learn-by-doing and gradually revise these statements. They will come into sharper focus as your journey progresses.
Do not get frustrated and do not feel that you must get these written down in "perfect" form before you can begin to use them.
Learning Journal Template © 2022 All Rights Reserved. James C McHann and Laura A Frost