What’s Your Mission Statement?

Mission statements are incredibly valuable in your life no matter what you do. My mission for years has been to inspire and empower people to lead joyful lives no matter what they’ve been through.

What Does a Mission Statement Do?

What's Your Mission Statement?

Having a mission statement not only provides direction, it is a fantastic reminder to live up to your full potential.

I moved on from the sad story of poverty, child sexual abuse and domestic violence by changing the dialog in my head. I rewired the negative angry thoughts to playful and joyful ones and rewrote my story. My mission statement was born after I applied it to myself first. I could not get up on stage to inspire people to lead joyful lives if I was still caught up in self-hatred and abuse. Once I changed my story, my life transformed forever and I began to live my mission statement.

I make sure everything on my life’s to-do list falls under the umbrella of my mission statement. But like many others, I wear many hats and have many different projects, goals and aspirations. Even though I can fit pretty much everything I do under one mission statement, I wanted to know what my personal focus was. In other words, I wanted to know what my name-tag should say.

So I asked the Bible.

Yes, it’s true. I know some of you just fell over in your chair while some of you are singing hallelujah. I asked the Bible and I received the most brilliant and fitting answer that I never expected.

Ever since I was little my mother taught me to get answers to questions by randomly opening books and reading the first thing your eyes fall upon. (Now a really funny exercise is to open her emails anywhere for a laugh!) I have practiced this exercise my whole life and it has always brought very interesting answers. But I had never used the Bible. It made me nervous.

One morning, years ago, on my way to work I scanned my bookshelf and there was the white Bible with the gold zipper that my grandmother had given me when I was about five-years-old. I figured why not ask the Bible. I hadn’t asked it anything before. So I unzipped it and held it in my hands, thinking.

“Who am I in this world?” I asked. “What is my mission?”

I’ll be honest; I was nervous my eyes were going to fall upon some kind of hell and damnation passage. My experience with the Bible as a child had been going to church on Sunday and being beaten on Monday. So I had no idea what to expect when I asked the question and opened the Bible.

My eyes fell upon one word. “Instructor”. That was fitting since I did teach people how to lead happier lives.

Then I read the whole passage.

“An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes.”

I got chills all over my body. Then I read the line underneath it.

Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thyself?” Romans 2:20, 21

Then I got chills again.

That was the same day I became a teacher of babes. I was on my way to play the role of Safe Side Superchick in the video series teaching kids how to be safe. My jaw was on the floor in shock. God has a sense of humor! I was a teacher of babes!

I also completely understood how teaching is the best way to teach yourself.

But I did not understand instructor of the foolish for a long time.

How in the world was I an instructor of the foolish? Wasn’t that kind of rude to tell people they were foolish anyway? I would only ever say that to someone who littered and foolish would not be the word of choice!

It finally hit me when I was speaking to a group of people who were beating themselves up, literally. They were caught in the cycle of abuse and trauma, had addictions, self-hatred and were self-abusing because of the harm someone else did to them. I knew the feeling; I had done the same thing. I also knew that not living up to your highest self and keeping your light dim because of someone else was – foolish!

An Instructor of the Foolish. Ah, the Bible, you are so clever! I had to try again. What can I say, I’m a rebel and tend to be a skeptic until angels show up and balls of light fill the room. I had to ask another question just to be sure. At the time there was a perp who was making my life hell and trying to keep my documentary from coming out. I won’t go into the list of annoyingly evil things he did but let’s just say I’m still paying off the legal bills seven years later. Big Blech.

So I asked the Bible another question just to see if I’d just gotten lucky with that perfect answer of what my mission was. I asked what would happen to the one who was trying to halt and destroy the work of the instructor of the foolish and teacher of babes. Then I opened the Bible. There it was – the hell and damnation passage I’d been expecting! Only this one was all about how the wrath will come down upon those who try and stop the work of God or something. I forget the address in the Bible where it was, but I remember the message clearly. Don’t mess with people doing good work. Guess what? I just found out a few days ago that that guy is going to jail.

I was not expecting the Bible to put the laser beam on my mission statement, but it did. And it’s true, I am an instructor of the foolish and a teacher of babes, inspiring people to lead joyful lives no matter what they’ve been through. Those who teach teach themselves and I happily practice what I preach as I apply my mission to everything from I work on from my children’s books to my dating advice book for co-dependent women who foolishly go broke supporting everyone but themselves.

If my grandmother were alive, she’d be proud and would probably tell me to keep reading and in her words “skip to the end, it gets better.”

What is your mission and who are you within your mission statement?

Please share in the comments. I’d love to hear!

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