1 May 2011, Nairobi
There was a weekend seminar for secondary school students who are financially sponsored by the Salesian Community where I now stay – Don Bosco Youth Educational Service (DBYES), Karen, Nairobi, Kenya. The students go back to school this week after their April holidays. These 29 students are part of a larger project run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Kenya and Tanzania, that sponsors almost 800 students, thanks to a legacy left behind by an American gentleman. During the weekend, I facilitated two sessions aimed at assisting the students to come up with their own personal mission statement in four steps.
1. As the first step in this process each participant was invited to do a personal SWOT Analysis: in a quadrant they write down their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Basically strengths and weakness are elements that are part of the person; and opportunities and threats are conditions that they recognise in their environment.
2. Having done this, in the second step they come up with Strategies by answering the following questions:
- How can I use my strengths to invest in the opportunities?
- How can I deal with my weaknesses and overcome threats by using my strengths and opportunities?
- How can I control damage where my weaknesses and threats meet?
Strategies have to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed!
3. In the third step, the participants answer the following questions in an attempt to begin to frame their mission statement:
- What do I want to DO (achieve) in my life?
- What type of a person do I want to BE?
- What values are important for me?
- What is God inviting me to?
4. Finally, they spend some quiet time going through all that they have written in the above steps. They come up with three to five sentences which form their Mission Statement. The statement has to use a proactive language, in a style that inspires. They are then invited to write the mission statement in a bigger sheet of paper with colour pens and stick it up in front of their study desk.