Personal Mission Statement

Started in Spring 2009 – an ongoing process.

For myself, I will:

• Not compromise with honesty.
• Persevere in the pursuit of goals.
• See the potential over limitation and not succumb to cynicism despite it being so cool.
• Not “overreact to negative behaviors, criticism, or human weakness”.
• “Feel grateful for my blessings and feel naturally to compassionately forgive and forget the offenses of others.”
• Forgive myself. I will not condemn myself for every mistake or social blunder.

For others, I will:

• Be slow to judge and quick to forgive both others and myself.
• Be be warm and kind to friends and family.
• Try to understand them truly and listen before speaking.
• Keep my word: be dependable and punctual.
• For my F&F, be there especially in a crisis.

For the world, I will:

• Be concerned with social issues and look for ways to systematically address them.
• Make the world better in small ways, as that will help me learn about it – and not preclude larger action.

In terms of how I live, I will:

• Act rather than be acted upon. I will try to be proactive and focus on how I can positively influence the situation.
• Be an explorer, seek out new experiences and be utterly unafraid of failure. I will fail specacularly rather than regret not giving it my all. I will try to not worry too much what other people think.
• Learn from my mistakes. This is the necessary corrolary of being unafraid of failure: next time I will be better.
• Work very hard at what I choose to occupy my time with – or else seriously reevaluate why I’m doing it.

• Keep an open mind to new ideas, but analyze them critically.
• Keep things in perspective and laugh at myself and others. I will not take myself too seriously. It’s only life after all.
• Stay healthy so I can have the energy to live vivaciously.
• Fear not passion.