I’ve spent the last few months on a physical and mental exploratory journey.  One of the physical activities I’ve been learning more about is climbing.  As I have an irrational fear of heights (a bit more rational when tied to a cliff) this is a very challenging physical activity that also forces me to focus mentally on myself and my limits… and how to overcome them.

Although I love the analogy I use for how I approach my work “The Internet Astronaut who rockets to the stars, but risks crashing and burning back down to earth.” …climbing is fast becoming a very close second in my analogy bag.  I’ve even begun to document an agile development methodology for building web startups called The Rapid Ascent Process.

One climbing related quote my buddy passed along to me the other day is really worth sharing.  It is from Chris Sharma who is considered to be the world’s best rock climber.  (I’ve removed the word “climbing” from the quote below, because I think this is such a great foundation for a personal mission statement everybody can use.  All you need to do is take that thing you are most passionate about and write it in the spaces below.)

For me now, I feel that _______ is a part of who I am. It’s my way of life. It’s my way of expressing myself. My way of being in the world. In the past, I questioned it a lot. Now it’s obvious. This is who I am. This what I do. I’m much more aware of that now. I think about how fortunate I am to be supported by all these companies and in reality the _______ community that supports those companies. I feel so fortunate to be supported by everybody to live this life, to travel around the world and to try and raise the standard of _______.

Modified quote from Chris Sharma [Read the Full Article Here]

What word did you write in?

Ok, so technically the above is more of a life statement and maybe not a Personal Mission Statement… but hey, it’s personal… so use whatever feels right to you. Check these links if you want a bit more information about The Value of a Personal Mission Statement or How to Write a Personal Mission Statement… or read Gandhi’s.