“Where do you want to go today?” is the question we’ve all been asked in one form or another by everyone from our mothers to Microsoft.  It’s a good question, one that made Microsoft millions, but figuring out the answer really won’t be good enough when you’re planning a career in academics or aiming to be the leading software company in the world.  To succeed in business or academics, you have to look beyond today and plan for the future; you have to pick a destination and then design a plan to get there.

The enormity of such a project may overwhelm us, and we often can’t seem to find a way to begin.   One simple way to start the process is to do what businesses and organizations do when they are beginning: construct a mission statement. It doesn’t matter if you’re a private citizen or public corporation; if you want to succeed, you have to have a clear purpose with a sense of who or what you are, what you want to do, and how you want to do it.  These are the building blocks of your own personal mission statement.

When you begin to create your own mission statement what more do you need to know? 

First, a mission statement traditionally has three parts:

•         Target – Who - Key Market

•         Contribution – What - Activity

•         Distinction – How – Unique

Second, it should pass the elevator door test which means that it should be short enough to be stated in the time it takes an elevator door to close.  No more than one or two sentences are required. 

Let’s look at a good example from a successful local corporation, Wal-Mart. “To offer all the fine customers in our territories all of their household needs in a manner in which they continue to think of us fondly.”  “The customers in all our territories” defines the target; “To offer …all their household needs” says what the contribution will be; “…in a manner in which they continue to think of us fondly” tells what will be the distinction that makes Wal-Mart unique.  Now think just what it is you really want to do in your academic career, for whom you want to do it, and how will you do it in a way that is different, better, or uniquely yours.  If you are not sure you really can define this for the long term, start by writing a statement that covers a shorter period, perhaps a three year plan. 

Writing the mission statement helps you focus but it is not an end in and of itself.  The real value of the statement is that it becomes the polar star by which you set and check your academic course.  At the end of the year when you’re preparing your annual review, you pull out your mission statement and compare your list of activities and accomplishments which may change yearly to your mission statement.  If the activities match the mission, you’re on target for success, but what if there’s a mismatch?  You have two possible courses of action.   Perhaps circumstances and your interests have changed, and you need to revisit and rewrite your mission statement to reflect this and set a new course.  If you still like your mission statement, however, it’s clear that what you’re doing is not advancing it.  In this case, your mission statement serves as a wake-up call to change your activities—and what better time to do this than during your annual review when negotiating your future activities? 

Success or failure in our academic careers is up to each of us so it is clear at the outset we need to develop a plan, to map out our journey.  Writing a personal mission statement is only the first step, but no journey can ever start without a first step.