Let's talk about your mission, vision and values.

Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach.

And welcome to the we have.

If you're goal setting without doing this fundamental step, then you're basically setting yourself up for failure and you're wasting a ton of time.

And I don't want that for you.

I don't think you want that for you either.

We are coming up on the new year and this is prime time for people to set some really big goals for the coming year.

And if you want those goals to be possible, if you want to actually achieve some things in the coming year, then I recommend taking a few hours and doing a little exercise that everyone in branding and marketing knows.

It's called mission, Vision, Values.

Because we all know that a goal without a strong why doesn't end up happening.

There was this one time when I was 25 years old and I was working at Equinox and we were in the presale office and I arrived to work and I think I was just feeling like bloated that day.

So I turned to my coworkers, I was like, you know what?

I'm going to give up.

I'm going to give up bread.

And if you know me, you know that bread is my all time favorite thing.

I will just eat a loaf of bread without butter, without toasting it.

Like nothing, nothing added, no cheese.

I just love bread.

And so I was like, you know what?

I'm going to give up bread.

And they were like, okay, like, unsure why I was announcing it to the room.

And this is about like 9:30 or 10 in the morning.

I went on lunch at around 11.

I came back to the office around 11:30 and I had already eaten half a loaf of sourdough bread.

And they looked at me with this massive loaf of bread in my hands and I was obviously chewing.

They're like, I thought you were giving up bread.

And I was like, well, it was too hard.

I could just, I couldn't do it.

I was thinking about bread too much.

This is a great example of a shitty goal that has no solid.

Why There was no science behind bread being the cause.

For me feeling puffy, I didn't really need to lose weight.

I don't know why I said I was going to give up bread.

It was a stupid thing to do.

I'm sorry.

Bread.

I will never do it again.

We're besties.

But it's a great example of why you need a solid.

Why if you're going to reach A goal.

About a year later, I made another goal of getting eight hours of sleep a night.

And this was my New Year's resolution.

I think I was like 26 years old.

And my why was I was unhappy.

My why was I knew I wasn't being healthy.

There were things about my lifestyle that I just wasn't into anymore.

And I really wanted to do something for myself to make myself feel better.

And I knew that stealing sleep from myself all the time, burning the candle at both ends was not serving me.

And I came up with a very specific plan.

That I would be in bed with all my electronics off by 9pm every single night for at least three months.

And that even if I couldn't fall asleep, I would just lay there and let myself rest in the silence and in the dark.

That goal I was massively successful with.

That goal actually changed my life because with all that extra sleep, I was able to get clear on the things that were working and not working for me in my life.

And it allowed me to really see what it was I wanted instead.

And not just that, start planning to get it.

If you need ideas for a good New Year's resolution, I can't recommend this one enough.

Now, of course, these are just small goals.

They're not the goal for your life.

A small goal is far easier to reach than your big life goals.

I want you to think back on, like when you told yourself you were going to do something for 30 days in a row or 100 days in a row, how hard was it?

How many days did you want to quit?

And what kept you accountable to doing it?

Was it social pressure?

Was it you had a really great.

Why?

Was it fear of failing?

Was it that, like that sensation of wanting to feel proud of yourself for accomplishing something?

All of those are really incredible tools to use when you have a short goal.

But when we're thinking about the mission, the goal we want to have for our life, the impact we want to have, the amount of money we want to make, how we want to spend our time, it's way longer than 30 days, my friend.

These kinds of things happen over years, over decades.

How are you going to keep yourself in the game for that?

Well, I'm about to tell you.

So let me break down what these things mean.

So your mission is the big, audacious, juicy goal that you have for your life.

What's the thing you want to accomplish, the impact you want to have in the world where a lot of people get hung up when they think about their mission is they Think it has to be holier than thou.

It has to be something that's good for everyone else and saves the world and is good for the environment and this and that and the other thing.

And like, sure, if you want it to be that, if it actually is that, if your main driver is you want to make sure that no child is hungry ever, then cool.

That can be the mission for your life.

But if you're just saying that because you think it sounds good and it sounds altruistic and it makes you a good person, it's not your mission.

You see, every one of those motivations for that being your mission is external.

It's what other people think.

This is where a lot of people get their mission for their life wrong is they think, oh, my gosh, okay, well, here's my time to shine.

Here's my time to prove how good a person I am, how worthy I am of love and respect and attention.

And let me tell you, if whenever you do something to show other people how worthy and deserving you are, it never works.

Because if you're surrounded with people who are already withholding love and making you feel like you're worthy and deserving of their respect, guess what?

There's no changing that.

They're not the right people to have in your life.

And love and worthiness and deserving are not things that you can ever earn.

They're just things that you have inherently.

So let yourself off the hook for the missions that sound good.

Your mission can be that you want to make people laugh.

Your mission can be that you feel at home in your body.

Your mission can absolutely be about ending homelessness.

But the reason why you want to end homelessness has to be about you.

Has to be about the impact you want to have for yourself.

What's the feeling of pride?

And I know there's a lot of people who are like, well, pride, Isn't that a bad thing?

Absolutely F not.

Pride is just like money.

If you're a good person, you're going to be proud of the good things you do.

If you're a bad person, you're going to be proud of the bad things you did and got away with.

I'll hazard guess if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably a pretty good person.

So you're not going to go and pour a bunch of barrels of oil into the local pond and feel really proud that you killed all the animals.

And if you are that kind of person, please stop listening right now and go seek help and remember that this is your personal mission.

This is the mission for your life.

You can have a different mission for, say, your business or a nonprofit that you establish.

One of the reasons why this topic actually came up for me, and I wanted to talk about it on this podcast, is I recently did this exercise with the other executives for the Gay Birthday Club, which is a nonprofit I just started.

And our mission for the nonprofit is very, very different from my personal mission in my life.

And I'll use it as an example to show you what you can make your mission for your business or your nonprofit.

So at the Gay Birthday Club, we believe that everyone deserves a cringey, love filled, embarrassing birthday phone call from their family.

Welcome to the Gay Birthday Club in an all inclusive organization committed to bringing joy to members of the LGBTQIA community to celebrate their birthdays.

Choose us as your family.

All the love, none of the political arguments on the holidays.

That's a beautiful mission for that nonprofit that wants to have that impact, but that's not my personal mission.

I deeply want you to spend some time reflecting on what you want.

And I want you to think about when you're old and maybe decrepit, can't get around very easily, and you're on your deathbed and there are people around crying.

I want you to think about who would you regret not being in your life if you got to the end of your life and you just, you didn't do this?

That gets to be your mission.

It gets to be selfish.

It also gets to be a little vague because that's where your vision's gonna come in.

Speaking of vision, let's talk about what this can be for you.

So your vision is aligned with your mission, but instead of it being like the what you wanna accomplish, it's the how you're gonna do it.

So, again, for example, the Gay Birthday Club, our mission is very clear.

We stand for everyone in the LGBTQIA community getting a cringy, love filled birthday call on their birthday.

Our vision is that we will be the ones to call them.

If they don't already get that call from family.

We will be their family.

Not only that, but we want to have a greater impact.

So we do fundraising so that we can, A, keep our operations going and B, give grants to organizations that are doing more serious work supporting the LGBTQ community.

There are a few other things that we want to do.

We'll be adding to this vision as we grow the organization, but this is where you get to get really specific about how you're going to enact your Mission.

Say your mission is all about making people laugh, because you just enjoy being in a room where there's always laughter happening.

That's what lights you up.

That's what makes you feel good and warm and loved.

Part of your vision could be hanging out with comedians.

It could be you join book clubs where people read funny novels.

It could be that you take an improv class or a standup comedian class.

It could be that you don't take life so seriously.

The important thing about really digging into your vision is that it keeps you on the tracks to reach the big goal.

Because if your mission for your life is to always have laughter, part of that vision doesn't necessarily mean gardening.

Like, you're going to garden all the time.

It can be a hobby you have, but it's not necessarily going to be your life's work.

Right.

It doesn't really land there.

When you're working towards this goal of creating life that you want, you're not going to look at that part of your life or that hobby as part.

So, for example, for the Gay Birthday Club, our mission is pretty clear and our vision kind of breaks down how we're going to do it.

It wouldn't quite fit for us to also have that we do beach cleanups, right?

Because there's no clear correlation between a beach cleanup and making sure that folks in the LGBTQ community get cringy, love filled calls on their birthday.

There's no clear correlation between taking plastic out of the environment and supporting this community.

Now, they're both amazing things to do.

You know, if you have some free time and a garbage bag and some gloves, I recommend you go down to the beach and do a beach cleanup at any point.

Pretty much every beach needs it.

But just like in a nonprofit setting, it would be really easy to be like, oh, well, that's a good thing to do.

We're a nonprofit.

We do good things.

I could absolutely have everyone do this.

It doesn't quite make sense.

Not on brand.

And remember, we're not living our lives for everyone else.

We're not living our lives to impress other people about what good people we are.

You are living your life so that when you get to your deathbed, you will have no regrets.

A big regret that people have is around getting distracted from what they want.

So your vision is really your guardrails to make sure that you are on the right track to fulfill your mission, to reach your goals in the specific way that you want to.

Will it feel selfish sometimes?

Absolutely.

Will it feel like you're not doing enough in the world.

Yeah, uh huh.

I know that the world wants you to care about everything.

I know the world wants you to care about your home, being beautiful and hungry children and ending war and being healthy.

And yes, these are all worthy things to care about.

And also, you are just one person.

And depending on your beliefs, this could be your one shot at living this life.

So full permission to just pick the one thing that you actually give a about and say no to all the rest, trusting that there are other people who will pick that one thing to care the most about.

I get sucked into this too.

I care about the environment, I care about women's rights.

I care about a whole lot of things.

And it's really easy to want to do work in all of them, but if I try to do work in all of them, I'm going to make barely any progress in all of them.

But if I pick one and commit myself to it, I know I can have impact there.

And I'm a firm believer that if we all just picked one thing that we wanted to have impact on, the world would be a far better place.

And lastly, values.

What are your values?

I do this exercise with my clients sometimes and when you ask someone what their values are, they're like, well, integrity and creativity and this and that.

And it's all like these buzzwordy things.

That sure sound good, but is that actually your value?

When we think of values and we think about our own personal values, I want you to think about when you are your worst, when you're angry and upset and feel resentful and feel like the world is out to get you.

And I want you to look at the moments before that feeling hit what happened.

Oftentimes our values are not things that we're particularly proud of.

All my life, my family, friends have all teased me about being a control freak.

And I'm not a control freak in everything.

But there are certain things I like just so.

And there are certain activities, situations where I really like being in charge.

Pretty much.

Until I was 29, I went to coach training.

I saw this as the worst thing about me.

I saw it as a part of me that I had to fix.

I had to let go of it.

It just wasn't serving me.

It was something that I got judged about a lot and it wasn't great until I did a values exercise.

My coach and I looked at this, he asked me a question, I was like, oh God, well, I'm such a control freak and I really need to fix that about myself.

And he's like, are you a control freak, or do you have a value around control?

Do you have a value around being the one who is accountable to the outcome?

What happens when things are out of control?

What does it make you feel?

And for me, being in a situation that feels out of control makes me feel helpless, makes me feel like I'm a victim.

Because often I can see, well, this is the one thing that we need to fix to make this better.

And if I can't do that, I just feel like my hands are tied, and I hate that.

I also have a value that I call labradoodle, because I can't think of any other way to describe it.

And this value, and of course, this is not something that if you were to, like, list off what your values are, you'd say, oh, yeah, labradoodle.

That's absolutely something that makes sense because you don't know what it means for me.

Right.

It might mean something completely different for you.

For me, when I think of a labradoodle, I think of a being that is just endlessly happy and finds a fun way to do absolutely everything.

I think of a being that is so confident that they deserve whatever they want, they will just beg for it.

They will ask for it over and over and over and over again, especially if it involves cheese.

There's no labradoodle out there who isn't convinced that they deserve belly rubs all day long, and they will be shameless in trying to get you to give it to them.

And I think that's such a beautiful way to live your life, and it's such a beautiful way to see yourself as endlessly deserving of the things that you want and to do so in a way that is joyful for you and for everyone around you.

I also think of how loving they are and how they make people feel seen and connected with.

And for me, that's the only way I want to live my life.

If I do anything, I want it to be with that kind of energy.

These values are the things that when they're not true, when they're not happening, you are at your worst.

And when you're at your worst, there's no way you're doing good work.

There's no way you're taking action on the things that will help you achieve your mission.

That's why they're so important.

I want you to think of the goal that you have for yourself, and you probably have a goal in the back of your mind.

It could be to make a million dollars it could be to buy your first house, could be to start a nonprofit.

And before writing it down for 20, 25 or whenever you decide to start going towards this goal before you make it the end all, be all, I want you to do this practice.

I want you to go through and look at your mission and establish it.

I want you to write a vision of how you're going to do it, and I want you to get crystal fucking clear on your values, who you're going to be as you go for it, and then check back in on that goal.

Does it fit?

Because if it doesn't, you're never going to reach it, because it doesn't actually matter to you.

It's just a goal that you thought sounded good.

And if that happens, I want you to release it back into the sea to get caught by someone else.

And I want you to go back to the drawing board and really figure out what the goal is that lines up with your mission and your vision and your values.

Do you ever meet an old person and you talk to them and you walk away thinking, God, life just happened to them.

It was like they got their arms stuck in the door of a bus and just got dragged along for the ride and had no choice and no say and just ended up here feeling disconnected from everything that they care about.

Would it shock you to hear that most people who end up like that put their arm in the door of the bus on purpose?

This is hard.

Living your life on purpose, being the narrator of your own story, creating your own destiny.

It's really hard work.

It's scary work because there's a chance you'll fail.

And this is something you care so deeply about.

The potential for failure is absolutely terrifying.

But there's a difference between the old person who life just happened to them and the old person who gave it their best, who lived life on purpose, who wrote their own story, who had a mission and did everything they possibly could to reach it.

And even if they failed, they're a completely different person on their deathbed.

They don't have any regrets because they know that they gave it their all.

And that, my friend, is what I want for you.

So stop being a weenie and go do it.

The funniest conversation I have every week with my mom, it's like my mom's like, oh, your episode this week is really good.

I just.

I really liked this.

And I'm like, cool.

What was it about?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.