Using AI to Develop Your Mission Statement?

Woe to him who had no sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and, therefore, no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. 

Victor Frankl

Reading time – 5 minutes (depending on distractions).

Why is this worth 5 minutes?

·      I have been studying mission statements and recommending them to clients since 2014.

·      I’m still at it, which should tell you something about how important I believe they are.

·      What is a “mission statement”?

·      A mission statement [1] is a compass.

·      Unlike other compasses, this is your personal compass.

·      Without a personal compass, you will navigate life like a rudderless ship.

·      With one, the next time you approach one of the forks in life’s stream, you will have a compass to assist you.

Now, if you include a Magic 8 Ball, you’ve got it made!

·      You’ll know what to do – all the time.

·      Think about how that feels.

·      First, I want to give you the takeaways.

·      Then, I give a very brief synopsis of some of what Dr. Vic Strecher has been doing in this field at University of Michigan, comparing what I call his “Original Method” to his “Beta Method.” [2]

Take Aways

·      Since Dr. Stecher [3] published Life on Purpose in 2016, he has continued to experiment with, and develop, new methods to help people better “craft [4] purpose” in their lives.

·      Victor Frankl would be proud!

·      This is especially important for people in transition: just graduating from college, between jobs, recently divorced, learning to live with unexpected health issues, or confronting retirement.

·      A few weeks ago, Dr. Strecher unveiled new tools he has developed for crafting purpose, including, (a) a new, shorter list of questions to ask oneself when evaluating one’s purpose; (b) a theory of “identity;” and, (c) a method for charting identity characteristics (“values identity chart”), like the age-old “wellness wheel,” which comes in many variations, but with a new twist: Strecher uses ChatGPT to analyze your data.

·      Brilliant!

·      He has concluded that the relationship between values and identity is the key to unlocking your mission/purpose in life.

·      The subject of values is old news, paradoxically interesting and boring at the same time.

·      Introducing the topic of “identity” is an innovation, but it also raises a cluster of questions.[5]

·      I’m familiar with wellness wheels (why not wisdom wheels?) and archetypes.

·      But how many people aren’t?

·      The addition of ChatGPT will likely seem daunting, if not clunky, to the average seeker.

·      More importantly, it is unnecessary. When I was a young man, we used to do the same thing with paper and colored pencils.

I like colored pencils. [6]

·      Will it dissuade people from developing mission statements because they believe that AI, something new and unfamiliar to most of us, is a necessary component of their analysis (which, by the way, it is not)?

·      Am I the only person bothered by using AI to help a human decide what his/her life’s mission is? [7]

“Siri, what’s my life’s mission?”

·      In fairness to Dr. Strecher, he was candid in his presentation that these new tools are “experimental” and may or may not survive the cutting room floor.

Intermission 

Is it just me, or does it smell like bullet points in here?

Dr. Stretcher’s Methods for Crafting Purpose 

Original Method

·      In 2016, when he published Life on Purpose, Dr. Strecher suggested that, in developing a mission statement, we begin with the following seven questions:

1.    What matters most?

2.    Who relies on you?

3.    Who inspires you?

4.    What causes do you care about?

5.    What are you grateful for?

6.    What gets you out of bed in the morning?

7.    How do you want to be remembered (“mortality salience,” also known as the “tombstone test.”)?

My Additions

My reaction was: incomplete. I would add the following:

·      Would you do it for free?

·      If you had all the time and money you wanted, what would you do with it?

·      What are you passionate about?

·      What are your strengths? [8]

·      When do you experience “flow”? [9]

·      What are you naturally curious about?

·      What are your options?

·      How do your circumstances restrain you?

·      What opportunities do your circumstances offer?

·      What excuses do you make to keep from moving forward?

·      How long do you have to figure this out?

·      What is the primary activity you could engage in to serve others?

I intend these as supplements to, not a substitute for, Strecher’s seven questions: thought provokers. Use however many help you develop (err, craft) your mission statement.

Beta Method

·      Strecher, blessed with a growth mindset, didn’t stop there. In a recent webcast (August 15, 2023), he unveiled “new stuff.” [10]

First, he has simplified his seven questions to the following four:

1.    Who are you?

2.    What do you value?

3.    What problems matter to you?

4.    What should your legacy be?

Initial Discussion [11]

·      Simplification dances on two feet.

·      When we simplify things, we may leave things out; we may make them easier to understand but at the expense of new questions to answer (e.g., what do you mean, “Who are you?” I’m the guy whose time you are wasting with what sounds like gibberish. Spoiler alert: it may get worse.).

Who are you? [12]

·      Beautiful, simple question: it attempts to get to the core of the first several questions in his original method.

·      Could be construed as confrontational.

·      Tone is important here.

·      Do not do this in a text message or an email or when confronting a stranger on the way to your car after dark unless you are really sure that the pepper spray in your pocket has not expired.

·      Unfortunately, Strecher then complicates the problem of who I am (is there a burning bush nearby?) – the “identity question” - by giving us three diagnostic tools with which to answer that question: (1) a form of archetype analysis, which he calls “identities,” (2) a version of the age-old, tried-and-true “wellness wheel”; and (3) graphic depiction courtesy of ChatGPT.

·      I wrote about archetype analysis in Living From the Inside Out.

·      I have used some version of the wellness wheel, both personally and professionally, since the 80s.

·      To some seekers, however, this may be virgin turf.

·      If you are unfamiliar with archetypes and wellness wheels, it may not matter, or it may slow down cognitive functioning.

·      I will expand on (1) identity theory, (2) archetypes, and (3) wellness wheels in future posts (otherwise, this five-minute class will run about an hour over).

·      Is this starting to sound too complicated?

·      Hang in there, and start drafting a mission statement.

·      If you are like I am, it will take about ten drafts to get to a point of homeostasis.

·      Breaking the inertia is the hardest part.

·      Just start!

·      If you are still with me, and want to drill down a little deeper, I’ll be back shortly.

·      In the meantime, stick with Strecher’s original methods + my additions.

Intermission

Sing along with Springsteen

Just around the corner to the light of day!

Just around the corner to the light of day!

Just around the corner to the light of day!

*

When in Doubt 

·      Observe yourself.

·      It could be that you are living your mission and just don’t realize it.

·      If what you do every day is your mission, how would you describe it?

·      If not, don’t get hung up on the complications of “Who am I?”

·      Focus on: “What is my mission (no matter who I am)?”

·      We’ll figure out who you are later.

The gold is not lying on the ground; you must dig for it. 

I still like colored pencils!

^^^^^

[1] I will use the phrases “mission statement,” “purpose statement,” and “life’s purpose” interchangeably. A “calling” is a close call. Academics should focus on bringing greater definition to this area.

[2] I confess that I was tempted to call it “Extra Crispy.”

[3] If I read is CV correctly, Dr. Strecher is not a psychologist. He is a professor of public health at U of MI. Of course, I am not a psychologist either.

[4] The choice of the word “craft,” rather than, say, “discover,” or “define” is important here and a nuance that I hope to discuss further – but not today. I will take the time to wonder, however, to what extent mission statements percolate up from the unconscious mind. Dr. Strecher does not address this.

[5] One “identity test” can be found at https://www.psychmechanics.com/aspects-of-identity-test/. How this compares to Strecher’s analysis is yet to be discovered.

[6] Strecher’s graphic representation of your personality data as a wheel, with some sections shaded in blue and others in gray, lacks verve and imagination. Whether that is intentional or a limitation with the technology is unknown.

[7] These days, you may wonder if AI wrote this article. No. All the credit and blame are on this aging, fallible human.

[8] See HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose, by John Coleman (p. 44.). To evaluate your own strengths, take the VIP Strengths Survey on Dr. Seligman’s site: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

[9] “Flow arises when one’s skills are fully utilized yet equal to the demands of the task, intrinsic motivation is at a peak, one loses self-consciousness and temporal awareness, and one has a sense of total control, effortlessness, and complete concentration on the immediate situation (the here and now).” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In my younger days, we simply called this “stoned.”

[10] To paraphrase Lebowski.

[11] I urge you to watch this 50+ minute video. It is interesting and entertaining: https://vimeo.com/854744314/cf2c6cde4c?share=copy

[12] Strecher gets bonus points from me for knowing that some Buddhists use, “Who am I?” as a mantra during meditation: very esoteric!