A Simple Method to Craft Personal Mission Statements

Wheel of Life

As life is multifaceted, any powerful and lasting approach to personal growth and healing must encompass all aspects of our being.

The Wheel of Life is a simple and powerful tool that allows you to take a visual snapshot of your life as it is in the present moment. The Wheel of Life maps each area of our life on a circle, like the spokes of a wheel. The Wheel of Life encourages us to consider holistically all important aspects of our lives. By capturing all the key aspects of our life on just one page, the Wheel of Life promotes Whole Life Thinking ™ and prompts us to Ask Life Big Questions Now™.

Step 1 – Pick your Areas of Attention. The Wheel of Life has eight spokes, each representing a key facet of your life. First decide which 8 aspects are the most important to you. The list below contains some suggestions to help you choose. You can, of course, also create you own aspects.

Of course you're not limited to 8 aspects - it's just a useful number. Feel free to use fewer aspects or add more.

Step 2 – Decide Where You are Now. The rim of your wheel - outer edge - is 10 (you are totally satisfied), while the centre of the wheel is 0 (not even a little bit satisfied with that aspect of your life). Give each of the eight chosen aspects of your life a score out of 10, and mark a cross on the relevant spoke. Next, draw a line across each segment (or join the crosses) to reflect your score out of 10. (Remember to date your chart, so that you can come back later and assess your progress.)

So if this wheel represents your life right now, is it a bumpy ride?

Step 3 – Set Your Intentions. Now you know where you are at in each segment, the next step is to work out what your perfect 10 would look like. What does a 10 feel like? Write down your thoughts. Make it as vivid as possible. At this stage, think only of what you want and don’t be distracted by the how.

Now you have a clearer picture of where you are now, and where you want to go in the future. I will be sharing with you some tools to take your life forward from here to where you want to be.

THE TROUBLE WITH UNCONSCIOUS INTENTIONS

As we go through our day, consciously and unconsciously, we strive to make the best choices we can, given what we know and have to work with at the point of making the decision.

So, whether we are conscious of it or unconscious, all our behaviours or actions have intentions (and they are positive intentions, at least to us). These include seemingly bad behaviour.

Our reticular activation system or RAS is never idle and it doesn't like a vacuum. So if we don't instruct it with conscious intentions, it'll follow whatever unconscious intentions (from our unconscious mind) unquestioningly.

The trouble with unconscious intentions (from our unconscious mind) is that they programme our RAS without us knowing and often set it to work for the wrong reasons.

Indeed, dig deep enough behind self sabotaging and anti-social behaviours, and we'll find that many have unconscious intentions at their root.

For example, everyone knows that the habit of smoking is linked to all kinds of horrible diseases.

Why then do some people continue to puff away merrily in spite of hostile stares, banishment from shared space, overwhelming medical research, and burning holes in their pockets?

There are conscious and unconscious intentions behind every behaviour.

Smokers start to smoke for a conscious intention. Perhaps it makes them feel cool, or more grown up, or helps them fit in, or flaunt their individuality, or establish their identity, or signifies coming of age, independence from parents, or express defiance against authourity like school.

Over time, new unconscious intentions creep in, like giving the smoker an excuse to take a break from work, or a way to give themselves a little reward, or a way to have some control over strong emotions, calm their nerves, or a way to feel a small sense of accomplishment as a cigarette burns itself up.

How can we spring clean our lives of such old unproductive habits of thought and self sabotaging behaviour?

Keep unconscious intentions from choking your RAS like weeds strangling your garden.

I’ll illustrate this with a short story.

One day a young boy was on his knees pulling weeds, one by one, out of the lawn at his home.

His neighbour, a kind old lady, was watching him quietly, smiling.

When she finally got the boy’s attention, she gave him this advice: “The best way to keep the weeds out of your lawn is to plant beautiful flowers.”

So, the best way to keep unconscious intentions from creeping in and short circuiting your RAS, is to plant conscious intentions.

PROGRAMME OUR RAS WITH CONSCIOUS INTENTION SETTING

Our intentions create our reality and outcomes. It literally does.

Our intentions instruct our reticular activating system or RAS to sort out what information our five senses gathered are relevant and what are irrelevant to our goals.

Only a minute fraction of what our senses gathered are allowed into our conscious mind to create our reality.

Our reality is our “map of the world” constructed from the information filtered through our RAS. Our “map” triggers our mental states (emotions) and body feelings. All these combine to produce our behaviour and actions that ultimately lead to our outcomes.

Intention creates reality and outcomes.

This is the way life is – according to the way our RAS works. We are all subject to our RAS' way of working - whether we like it or not, whether we know it or are ignorant.

As powerful as our RAS may be, the good news is we are able to programme our RAS at will.

Our RAS can be programmed by two kinds of intentions - conscious and unconscious.

Only conscious intentions can instruct our RAS to produce intended outcomes for us. (Unconscious intentions also produce outcomes but only unintended outcomes – we’ll come back to unconscious intentions later.)

Conscious intention is:

- A determination to act in a certain way or to do a certain thing

- The object towards which our thoughts are directed.

Intention setting is a powerful way to programme our RAS to achieve our goals.

When we set an intention, we make a decision about what we wish to accomplish or possess. When we decide something consciously, we are instructing our RAS to get us an experience we wish to have in the future.

Setting intention is like placing an order with our RAS. Our RAS is completely loyal and obedient. Once we definitely make the decision to intend something, our RAS dutifully tunes itself to seek that thing out for us.

I say “definitely make the decision to intend,” because our RAS doesn’t like indecisiveness. Only when we make an absolute decision would our intention be certain. That is a positive signal to our RAS.

If we don’t make a definite decision then it is nothing more than just a wish or a hope.

“It sure would be nice if I could start my own life coaching business someday.” That’s a lot different from “I intend to start my own life coaching business by the end of the year.” One is a definite command to our RAS that we’re clear about the fact that we want to start our own life coaching business before the calendar changes. The other is a weak signal that says you hope someday it will appear.

When we set our intention positively as a definite decision, the RAS receives our desire as a clear instruction and starts seeking things to bring it to us.

The people who will help us, financial and physical resources that we need, information resources, clients, and other necessary things, will appear. Thanks to our RAS.

Intentional living is very empowering, because it gets us through our life over the long haul like our North Star. It is very easy to get lost in the day-to-day struggles of living this life. There’s so much that demands to be done on a daily basis that it’s easy to lose sight of where we are navigating our ship.

When we set a clear intention for the situation we wish to bring about in our life, we can still take care of the day-to-day business of life, knowing that a higher part of us is working, using the power of our RAS to bring about the circumstances we wish to experience.

INTENTIONAL LIVING CAN BE A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Friedrich Nietzsche said: "He who has why to live can bear with any how". Indeed, living with conscious intention can make the difference between life and death.

The power of conscious intention was put to the most stringent test in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was living in Austria when the Second World War broke out. Frankl and his family were taken away to a concentration camp, along with millions of other Jews. The Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, had a plan to eliminate all Jews living in territories under Nazi control.

As a psychiatrist, Frankl became interested in how different camp inmates coped with the terrible situation that they were in. All were in the same hell, but there were two distinct groups of inmates – those who survived and those who didn’t.

One group fell sick, went to sleep and never woke up, or committed suicide. Another group went about showing concern for others and caring for others despite their own sufferings.

Frankl found that those who survived were those who intended to live - they consciously chose to stay positive despite their dire situation and the ill treatment at the hands of the guards. They intended to reunite with their loved ones once they leave camp, or they intended to complete some unfinished business.

Frankl found that those who did not survive the concentration camp were those who did not have any conscious intent. Those who succumbed were those who were resigned to their fate and lost hope.

Life without conscious intention is half of death. Surviving on autopilot with no conscious direction - they merely reacted to the abuse of the guards.

When they were treated badly by the guards, they automatically felt bad. Their sense of self worth took a hit, their morale went downhill, disease and mental anguish followed, and relieve came only when death overtook them.

Our own situations may not be so extreme but can some of us identify with the Jewish inmates' predicament? Are some of us similarly caught in situations where others mistreat us? Do we have the mental resilience and resources to triumph over our adversities? Are we living our lives to the fullest or is our life half of death - without conscious intention.

Living intentionally can save lives.

OUR INTENTION CREATES OUR REALITY

We are our intentions.

Our intentions shape our choices of our vision, beliefs, values, habits, and actions.

Our intentions determine our choices that lead to outcomes.

This is nature's law. This is the way nature works. We are all subject to nature's laws - whether we like it or not, whether we know it or are ignorant.

There are two kinds of intentions - conscious and unconscious.

Only conscious intentions can produce the intended outcomes for us. Meaning, only if you make your intention conscious either by saying it out loud, writing it down, or visualizing it in your mind, do you then stand a chance of achieving what you set your heart on.

On the other hand, unconscious intentions also produce outcomes but they are more often than not unintended outcomes.

Unconscious intentions are often the culprit underlying bizarre, unproductive behaviour and poor results.

Conscious intention is:

- A stretching or bending of the mind towards an objective

- A determination to act in a certain way or to do a certain thing

- The object towards which our thoughts are directed.

Conscious intentions are just focused thoughts and everything worthwhile starts as focused thoughts.

Everything is created twice. First in our mind as an intention, and then in reality.

Without that intention, there would be no reality. This is true of both conscious and unconscious intentions.

A building is first created in the mind of the architect before it rises into the air.

An airplane is created in the mind of its designer first before it cruises through the airways.

We too are created twice.

Yes, us - we are our most important creation. We are first created in our minds before others see us in flesh and blood.

Our intentions, conscious and unconscious, made ourselves us.

If you want to be the best that you can be, be conscious of whom you are making yourself to be, in your own mind.

Your intention creates your reality, so it pays to know what your intentions are.

Make sure your intention is based on love - more on that next time.

SET YOUR INTENTION AND SET OFF!

When you set an intention, conscious or unconscious, two things come up right away without fail. Resources and obstacles, these two always move in an inseparable pair.

When we see an opportunity, thoughts of obstacles follow in a split second - often the very next moment.

Since resources and obstacles move around like Siamese twins, the reverse is also true.

When we meet with obstacles or crises – if we look carefully, we will see that the obstacle is wrapping an opportunity. We only need to look beneath the surface. Remove the wrapping to reveal the gift.

When we set an intention we get thrilled by the possibilities. People, opportunities, and relevant experiences flood our minds, pushing open doors to so many possibilities. We see who can help us, where we can go with the idea, how we can accomplish our mission. Everything seems to be ready for us – we need to go just do it.

And then, hot on the heels of resources come the obstacles. These come in all forms – not enough money, not enough time, no experience, no partners, no expertise, no connections. Often just seconds of thinking of the obstacles is enough to douse the flames of excitement and the intention is relegated to the waste basket of wishful thoughts that pass by our mind’s window everyday.

Everyday we go through this process countless times – endlessly weighing the pros and cons. Bright sparks always getting squelched by thoughts of the obstacles, keeping us in the rut even though we have all the resources we need to achieve our goal.

If we don’t set conscious intentions, this life sapping habit becomes our life time pattern.

It’s an embedded programme that runs in our head, and runs our life without us being conscious of it.

So the next time, an exciting idea comes to your mind, remember that thoughts about the obstacles will follow in train as surely a night follows day.

Don’t let obstacles run your conscious intention over.

Face your obstacles with confidence and be encouraged by the knowledge that the arrival of obstacles is just the nature of things.

When we put our mind to it (i.e. set our RAS on it) – keeping our conscious intention in mind - there will always be a way to achieve what we set out to do with love.