How do you want to be different at the end of 2014 than you are now? How do you want to make the world different? In defining the goals you will pursue, are they more focused on success, or significance? Do you recognize the difference in those two things?
As I’ve reflected on my mission for the year, it has boiled down to a simple statement. Simple to say, that is, but not so simple to do, because there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of little decisions, actions, words, and aspirations underneath them. But in that, the statement challenges me, to connect the grand with the small, the moment with the long-term, and to reach for something larger than merely the personal. As I think about 2014, and how I will look back at the end, here is what I want to accomplish:
My mission is to align talent and resources to achieve outcomes with purpose.
Obviously, this mission will require a focus on making my knowledge deeper and my skills better. But it will also require focused attention to others, and how I can help them maximize their talent and resources to achieve outcomes that have purpose to them. By building relationships with intention, being open and curious in learning, I believe that mission can build toward a life of significance.
Sure, I want to be in a little better shape, eat healthier, etc. etc., and make all of the commitments that we do at New Years in resolutions. But somehow, even those little things take on a different significance when framed in that larger mission. And significance, for those in the association and non-profit world, certainly should be a major focus of our work and lives.
So, Happy New Year! May it bring you deeper meaning, clearer purpose, and satisfaction and contentment with a life well lived in the next year.
Executive Director's Toolkit 