Two years ago I spoke at the King County Bar Association’s Solo and Small Firm Bootcamp.  It was a red-letter day because I had the great fortune to hear counselor and mediator Joe Shaub.  Joe had tons of great advice, not the least of which was this simple, but effective exercise for writing a professional mission statement in 30 minutes or less:

Part One (10 Minutes)

Rank the values listed below on a scale of 1 to 4:
1 not important, 2 important, 3 very important, 4 extremely important.

• Achievement
• Ambition
• Adventure
• Affection
• Beauty
• Broadmindedness
• Cheerfulness
• Cleanliness
• Competence
• Competitiveness
• Comfortable Life
• Cooperation
• Courage
• Creativity
• Discipline
• Economic Security
• Equality
• Exciting Life
• Fame
• Family Happiness
• Family Security
• Forgiveness
• Freedom
• Friendship
• Happiness
• Health
• Helpfulness
• Inner Harmony
• Integrity
• Involvement
• Intellectual
• Logic
• Loving
• Loyalty
• Mature Love
• National Security
• Order
• Peace
• Personal Development
• Pleasure
• Polite
• Power
• Recognition
• Religion
• Responsible
• Salvation
• Self-Respect
• Wealth
• Wisdom

Part Two (5 Minutes)

Identify the values you ranked as very (3) or extremely (4) important.  Make a list of each (very important values grouped together; extremely important values grouped together).

Values ranked as 4 – Extremely Important:

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(Continue on another page if needed).

Values ranked as 3 – Very Important:

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

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(Continue on another page if needed).

Part Three (10 Minutes – Allow 2 Minutes Per Question)

Next, complete the following five statements.  Write down the first thought that comes to mind.

1.  What I always dreamed of being or doing was:

________________________________________________________

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2.  My three or more greatest gifts or talents are:

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3.  The things I feel quite passionate about are:

________________________________________________________

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4.  The most satisfying moment in my professional/educational life so far was when:

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(Continue on another page if needed).

5.  What made that moment personally satisfying to me was:

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(Continue on another page if needed).

Part Four (Allow 5 Minutes)

Using the answers from Part Three, complete the following sentence:

My mission is to apply my gifts (which are                                        ,                               , and                                                                )* in advancing that which I deeply value (                                                           ,                                               , and                                                    )** in the service of                                                                  .***

* See your answers to Part Three, item 2.

**See your answers to Part Three, item 3.

***Consider all the values you listed as extremely important from Part Two.  Also consider persons or groups you deeply desire to serve and/or causes or ideals you deeply wish to advance.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!