Modern Goddess Magazine

Living an authentic life can encompass many components of your career; everything from your career choice to your interactions with your colleagues. To determine if you are living an authentic and full life at work, it is important to understand your own values. These values serve as the benchmark in determining whether or not your career represents the best of yourself. If you value making a contribution to your society, living an honest life, and mentoring other professionals, then these values should exist within your current career. If not, then changes need to be made to ensure that they are incorporated.

A reliable benchmark for determining whether you are living your best life through your career is to create and implement your own mission statement. Although your employer probably has a mission statement specific to the organization, it is also helpful for you to follow your own statement that reflects your expectations as a professional.

To create a personal mission statement, start by listing all of your values (beliefs or ideas that represent who you are)such as honesty, compassion, strong work ethic, leadership etc. From the list highlight the top five values that are essential to you. Next, list all of your professional objectives/goals. For instance, do you want to ensure that you mentor the next generation of professionals? Or do you want to constantly stay on top of your industry by seeking out continuing education? Now, from that list, highlight the top five objectives/values that are essential to you.

Now take a blank sheet of paper and re-write the five values and five objectives/goals. From these words and phrases, create your own personal mission statement. A mission statement is traditionally one to two sentences long that serves as a broad statement representing the core importance of your existence. Once your mission statement is written, evaluate whether or not your career reflects it. If not, identify opportunities to incorporate your statement into your work.

Through the creation and implementation of your personal mission statement for your career, you can utilize this resource as a benchmark for determining whether or not you are living your best life at work.