Hop, Skip, Jump


Playfully Manifest a Meaningful Life

Your Mission Paintment: The Ever-Changing, Expanding Mission Statement

What if a mission statement could be playful?

Excerpted from Hop, Skip, Jump by Marney Makridakis | Posted 1/1/2014 | Updated 4/29/23


FUN FACT

JengaJenga, the name of the popular stacking game, means “build it” in Swahili. Imagine you are building your ideal life. If you could use any materials in the world, what would you use?

The phrase “If you build it, he will come” holds a lot of energy in the Hop phase. In the film Field of Dreams, it was the voice that Kevin Costner’s character heard whispered whenever he visited the field. It was the voice he listened to whenever he faced doubts.

When you think of “If you build it, he will come,” what is your “it”? What are you building? Organizations, companies, and businesses have mission statements to clarify what they want to build. Contemporary personal development books encourage us to write a mission statement to encompass who we are and what we want to create.

In the interests of total self-disclosure, a mission statement is one of the aspects of the Hop phase where I roll my eyes and get a little bored. Somehow, the very term mission statement and its usage in our society feel so serious. The term also implies there is something finite about a mission. As my client Judy said, “I’m afraid to write a mission statement because then it’s official. Then I can’t change it.”

What if a mission statement could be playful? What if your mission, like you, could be ever evolving, ever changing, and always expanding? While a mission statement can feel intimidating or limiting, you can try a “mission paintment”: a spontaneous work of art that expresses your vision with bold colors, wild strokes, and evolving designs.

Try This: Build Your Billboard

  1. Think of a very well-traveled area where many, many people would be likely to see a billboard. If the first thing that comes to mind is the route from your door to the sidewalk, I’m assuming you don’t get out much, so you will need to stretch your imagination a bit in order to do this exercise.

  2. Pretend you get to paint a message on a billboard in that area, to be seen by those many, many people. Try these prompts to explore what it might say:
    I really want to tell people:

    This is important to me because:

    My message for the world reads:

    When it comes right down to it, I am here to:

    What do your answers reveal about your mission?

  3. What is one way you might express your mission this week? You are welcome to rent a billboard and one of those crazy-tall billboard ladders to make your own billboard, or you could try something a bit more simple, like making a playful sign with your statement or saying it out loud before you go to sleep. However, if you are prone to sleepwalking, please do not try the first suggestion, as you may be putting yourself in danger. Studies show that billboard assemblers are almost always awake.

Excerpted from Hop, Skip, Jump: 75 Ways to Playfully Manifest a Meaningful Life ©2014 Marney Makridakis. Printed with permission of NewWorldLibrary.com.

About Marney Makridakis

Marney MakridakisMarney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time and Hop, Skip, Jump and founder of the online community Artella Land. ...


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