1. Passion Statement – What you see?
2. Mission Statement – What you do?
3. Value words – Who you are, and what words describe you?
4. Strategies – What do you need to do, to achieve your passion and mission?
1. The Passion Statement – What you see?
To start the process to create your own personal passion statement, consider what “you would see” if you were truly living out your life purpose. It is always best to base your life purpose on a Bible verse or favourite quote that identifies the most with you, one that you relate to and can see this as your life calling. It is always best to choose your own Bible verse or quote, but if you need a little guidance, some good examples of popular verses that can frame your life purpose may include these:
Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Philippians 4:13, Philippians 2: 1-11, John 3:16, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 41:10, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 46:1, Galatians 5:22-23, Hebrews 11:1, 2 Timothy 1:7, Proverbs 22:6, Isaiah 40:31, Joshua 1:9, Philippians 4:6, Hebrews 12:2, Zephaniah 3:17, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Deuteronomy 31:6, 1 Corinthians 16:13 and Isaiah 61. You can find more examples on this link: Bible Gateway
When developing your own passion statement, you should use the “lift” response. If someone asked you in a lift, “what’s your story,” you can tell them in one simple sentence.
I know what is like when someone asks the question, and you aren’t really sure exactly what it is you do, or who you are, you probably won’t have enough time to explain. So the idea is to keep it really simple and concise, but really descriptive, and most importantly, positive.
The best way to develop some ideas, is to consider what you are really passionate about, what is your life purpose, like the arts or teaching, IT, travel, science, nature, animals, ministry, preaching, evangelism, physical fitness, politics or law. I find that people have a burning desire to do something, but generally don’t have the courage to take that leap of faith and step out. Usually this desire comes from a very early age, but can be stifled by circumstances, education, family, friends, finances, fear or just unbelief.
Passion statements must be concise, positive, descriptive, and simply stated.
Lets say your passion is teaching, well what do you do if you are teaching? You develop young people and equip them for the world, to be the best they can be, to achieve their potential. And maybe based on your favourite Bible verse like, Philippians 2: 4-5, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”.
So you could then write a passion statement something like this:
“To see young people encouraged, equipped and released to achieve their God given potential”
Now remember that your vision statement is something that is like a positive affirmation, so while you may not yet have achieved your passion, you are on that journey. It is a little like going on a road trip, the first thing you need to determine is, where am I going? If you don’t know your destination, the chances are you will be travelling all around in ever decreasing circles, wasting a lot of energy and really getting nowhere. You will never get to your destination.
2. The Mission Statement – What you do?
Now that you have settled on your “passion statement”, the development of your mission statement just follows on, if you want:
“To see young people encouraged, equipped and released to achieve their God given potential”, what would you do to achieve this?
The mission part more relates to being equipped to go on your journey, what do you need to do before you go on your trip, other than knowing your destination? You need transport, maybe a drivers license, fuel, money, time and possibly some good music?
Or maybe you are travelling by bus, or train, or a push bike, so the requirements will change for each situation. It may be cheaper to travel by bicycle, but if you are travelling a long distance, this may take you a lot longer time than you have available.
How about? what we do is “create an environment for learning that is uncompromising”
3. Value words – Who you are, and what words describe you?
Values words are words that describe you as a person. The words should be positive, and encouraging. What words should you use?
I have found that the bible gives you a great starting point. Most of the words I have used in my passion statement come from Ephesians 3 14:21, my favourite bible verses. It is about exceeding expectations, extravagant love, father heart, wisdom, growth, faith and humility. So these are the Values words I have chosen for my own personal passion statement.
Lets look at some other great examples to use as positive thought starters:
acknowledged, accountable, beautiful, believer, beloved, blessed, bold, brave, builder, caring, champion, character, cheerful, comforter, companion, compassion, complete, concerned, confident, conqueror, considerate, constructive, cornerstone, courageous, created, decent, dedicated, destined, devoted, disciple, disciplined, discreet, distinguished, divine, doorkeeper, eager, edifies, effective, empathy, enabled, encourage, endurance, enjoy, enlightened, entrusted, equip, exalt, excellent, expectant, faith, father, filled, firm, forgiven, foundation, free, friend, fruitful, fulfilled, generous, gentle, gifts, giver, glad, glorified, Godly, gracious, grounded, guide, happy, harmony, healed, healthy, heart, heavenly, helper, holy, honest, honour, humble, independent, integrity, involved, joyful, just, justice, kind, leader, learned, listens, love, manage, mature, mediator, meek, merciful, mighty, mindful, ministering, model, needs, neighbour, noble, obedient, obligated, ordained, orderly, overcome, parent, peace, perfecter, performer, pillar, pleasant, prayer, prepared, provider, pure, radiant, recognise, reflect, renewed, respect, restorer, righteous, royal, salvation, satisfied, saved, seated, seeker, self controlled, servant, sharer, sincere, solid, spiritual, stature, strength, successful, sure, sustaining, sympathetic, talented, taught, teach, temperate, thankful, thirsty, trained, transformed, treasured, triumphal, true, trust, truth, understanding, unfailing, united, upright, useful, valuable, victorious, virtue, visionary, welcomes, wholehearted, willing, wisdom, witness, and worthy.
Now if you chose some value words like:
- Champion
- Equipped
- Encourage
- Parent
- Perfecter
- Unfailing
Then add the words that describe the value words:
- Champion – always positively being the students champion
- Equipped – provide every opportunity to release students to achieve their potential
- Encourage – place courage in others to be what they are called to be
- Parent – Gods good gifts
- Perfecter – clay in the potters hands
- Unfailing – never give up on what I believe
4. Strategies – What do you need to do, to achieve your passion and mission
Remember you have your map, you know what you need for the journey, so the strategy is, how do I get the transport, fuel, money, time and be equipped for the journey.
These are the action points to move forward. So given the example that you want to be a teacher that will:
“see young people encouraged, equipped and released to achieve their full potential”,
Now if you are just finishing high school and you are ready to start university, your strategy will look a little different to someone that has been teaching for ten years and is looking for a new direction in their teaching.
So what next, what strategies do you need?
If you were in high school, by now I expect you would have determined what type of teacher you would want to be, primary school, high school and then what speciality?
So you would now know, what higher school certificate result do you need to get to the University of choice. So this is the first strategy, to achieve the first stepping stone, a result to get you into University. How would you get that result, this is the action piece, you would need a study plan, determine what subjects you need to take, what effort do you need to or are prepared to make to get these results. Sometimes this is a sacrifice, but hey, you want to be a teacher that makes a significant difference don’t you?
Strategy 1
- Determine the subjects that you need to take to get into the university of your choice
- Determine the results you need to achieve to get into university
- Establish a study plan that will see you get the results, say at least 6 hours per week outside of home work and school time
Strategy 2
- Determine how you are going to pay for the University Fees, maybe your parents can pay the fees, or if not, you may need to consider HECS, or a scholarship, or take up some part time work to contribute to the cost. When you have a purpose, and a passion it is amazing how much easier it becomes.
- And so the journey begins, obviously you will need to continue to expand the strategies, but at least now, you have a plan, a road map and you are on your journey. Sometimes that journey might take some detours, but it is important that you keep your eyes on the destination. It is up to you to develop these strategies for success, while they are not included in your final plans on this website, you will need to spend some time to think about what actions you need to take to get traction on your purpose filled life.
Now you are equipped to go to the “Create your own Vision Statement” page and create your own Life Purpose.