A maturing mission statement

Mission statements, at their best, give me motivation and lead me to clear goals. At their worst, they make me cynical (e.g. pretty much any of the stinkin’ mission statements from my last 3 companies)

So I’m building a mission statement for my recovery that will motivate me.

Here’s today’s draft:

My mission is to adapt my Thinking, Activity and Eating habits to permanently change to a moderate range of Emotional, Physical and Social behaviors.

This is so much better than my last draft, in which I stated, among other things, a physical weight number of 130 pounds. That was an illogical statement, because I simply don’t know if that will ever be remotely possible.

My new draft has a goal (a set of new permanent behaviors) that enables me to define some specific goals as I learn what they might be.

Examples of specific goals:

• I check in with my emotions in stressful times, and find that they are usually not driven by negative self-talk
• I go out for swims, walks on a regular basis without forcing myself
• I reach out to others to have fun and productive experiences

Examples of specific habit changes:

• Write positive observations about myself every day
• Find and do more physical activities in which I feel safe
• Look for hidden emotional eating events and try to avoid them

My positives:

1. This is a mission statement I think I can actually use
2. I practiced saying it for 45 minutes today while in the swimming pool
3. It’s great that it doesn’t require that I reach 133.72 pounds, or any other artificial limits
4. I feel a stronger sense that doing things makes me feel better than being on the sofa
5. I’m taking it easy today and welcome it