Do you see yourself as a leader? If so, what is your leadership philosophy? Most importantly, what is your personal mission statement? if you don’t have one, today you will define one and become a better version of yourself.

Personal mission statements provide teachers with an overall direction to guide them throughout their careers. Before we start helping you to discover how to write your own personal mission statement, let’s first understand what it is.

What Is a Teacher’s Personal Mission Statement?

Your mission statement brief description of your fundamental purpose of joining the teaching profession. If you have joined a school as job to pay your bills, you are not alone. Many people are on the same journey. Nonetheless, you can take a moment to redefine your purpose in order to make the best out of this opportunity of contributing to the lives of students.

A mission statement when carefully crafted:

1. sift what is important from what is not,
2. clearly state your focal points, and
3. communicate a sense of purpose throughout your years in service.

So your mission is what you want to achieve as teacher. It is rooted in your core values, and sets an expectation from your own self; such that you can evaluate your success.

Setting a mission will change your overall approach to so many areas of your profession. You will see amazing transformation in not only your life but all the lives that you will be touching.

How Will You Benefit?

Defining your personal mission statement is your first step to take control of one’s own life. It gives you clarity and focus that you need in your professional and personal life.

A clearly defined personal statement sets a tacit expectation among relationships. When you clearly know what your priorities it makes it easy for people to know what to expect from you in certain situations.

Your mission makes your decision making much easier. Especially, when you face a dilemma, you know your focus and overall purpose. You feel better about your decisions and find an inner peace with your choices.

How to Define Your Personal Mission Statement?

Stephen R. Covey popularized the idea of developing a personal mission statement, in his landmark book The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Covey gives three steps to achieve this otherwise overwhelming task – define, disseminate and demonstrate.

STEP 1: Define

You know your core values and profound beliefs. And, you know your strengths. It is time that you reflect on these ideas and write down:

1. What are your core values?
2. What you believe is necessary to be successful?
3. What personality traits you wish to call out in your students?

You may come up with an extensive list of ideas of core values. It is genuine and all of these are important. But a good mission statement is brief and easy to remember. Consider if you will come up with a poster of your mission statement; your message should be concise and clear.

Say you have chosen Trust as your core value to focus on. Your mission statement may contain, “earning trust of my students…”

Here are some examples of core values;

STEP 2: Disseminate

Sharing your personal mission statement with people around you is frightening but it is an important step. Disseminating your statement helps you to reflect on your statement. Start with people who you trust the most and you know that they will give a constructive feedback.

You need to have conversations with your students and other trusted people around you. You may want to assess their feedback and reaction to your statement.

STEP 3: Demonstrate

Most importantly, your actions speak louder than your words. You need to demonstrate your statement through your actions. If it doesn’t match the whole exercise will be surely worthless.

You need to define your leadership style in line with your mission. This is why you are here and this is why you are doing what you’re doing. Your mission has given you all the confidence you needed in your actions. You will serve your community with a conviction that will make you powerful.

Please share your personal mission statement in the comment section below.

You can get more guidance in my book Listen to the Music, Silence and Noise in your classroom.

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