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Determining One’s Mission in Life
By Steve Sjogren | June 14, 2006
Mission, whether personal or organizational, isn’t automatically something that is set in front of us as a goal to attain to. Quite the opposite. We discover our mission by looking over our shoulder at what I call the “flow of the river” of life that we have been in since childhood.
Assuming you had a normal childhood that wasn’t marked by severe abuse, it is the thing that has taken you through thick and thin. In my case, from the time that I was four, I was always pretty much about just two things: Helping others take risks when they were risk-averse, and finding great joy in helping others become highly successful.
For example, when I was just four, when other kids were selling lemonade on card tables with goofy hand-drawn signs, I had a custom-built lemonade shack with a professionally painted sign overhead that had “40 mph” letters atop “ICE COLD LEMONADE!” I did research on the market. I undersold my competition by a few pennies.
My lemonade was colder, plus I gave my customers more for their money. After some weeks of doing business, I offered Popsicles. That required dry ice. It was quite an operation. I hired a couple of neighbor kids who were older than me. I was thrilled to put them to work with me.
For some reason, it thrilled me more that they were becoming successful than that I was making money. Even at that young age, that was my heart’s desire.
Steve Sjogren
Topics: Leadership, Mission |
