Talent: What is Your Vehicle?

My Mission in Life is not to merely survive, but to thrive; to do so with some sense of passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style - Maya Angelou

Richard Branson once said, "[I want] to have fun", and he did just that by creating companies embracing this very vision.  Your Contribution Statement defines your life dream.  It  embraces a large and lofty idea filled with your unique purpose.  By creating a Contribution Statement you are erecting a large banner over your life that reveals your heart's desire.  This banner is 'why' you will take action in the future; it is the motivating force.

Often our vision embraces our unique and highest character traits.  These are the traits we love about ourselves; the traits we embrace without hesitation, because we often cannot stop from sharing them with others.  My partner in life has a passion to be an innovator so that things around him run easier.  He loves his job because he spend all day in the computer world creating code to solve problems and creates statistical analysis that reveals a story about the company's data.  Every day he is thinking about ways to innovate, create and make change, his vehicle is the world of numbers.

Contribution (Vision) Statement:  The large 'why' you want to see revealed in the world.

 

Vehicle (Mission) Statement:  The defined, 'how' of your life. 

Your Vehicle Statement is the 'how' that will carry you on your journey.  Oprah's vision is to teach and inspire people and she uses her television network to do this, Bill Gates' vision is to unlock the potential of every individual and did this with making computer software accessible in every home, Blake Mycoskie's vision is to cloth the poor and he uses his TOMS shoe company to do just this by giving a child in need a pair of shoes every time he makes a sale.

What will it take to fulfill to contribute to life in the way you want to?  Some times a vehicle statement is created out of our love for a specific job.  For example, a love to care for others, may have been illuminated through a nursing position.

Contribution: (Character trait)

To help and care for those around me.

Vehicle:  (Skill)

To work as a specialised hospital nurse.

When World Vision created their contribution statement of human transformation for people in poverty, I'm sure they could not have imagined the masses of people they would help along the way.  They have run thousands of campaigns against poverty in the world and their skill to create programmes that reach people desperate for food, water and shelter has been world changing. 

Even with all of the money they are given every year, this would mean nothing without well-run development programmes with specific goals, practices, disaster management, and the list goals on.  They have a large contribution or vision (why), but more specifically they have very well defined vehicle (how).  The reason their vision is so effective, is because their vehicle (how) is organised, focused and specific.

A Mission (Vehicle) Statement is not something you write overnight.  But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values.  It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life - Stephen Covey.

Writing Your Vehicle Statement:

• Take time to think about your Contribution Statement.

• What is the practical outworking of your vision?

• How are you going to fulfill your vision?

• What is the 'vehicle' or job that is going reveal what you want to see in the world?How are you going to make change in the world?

• What job would you love to do? (Write your Vehicle and Contribution in reverse).

• What skills are you good at and how do they fulfill your Contribution?

• Write down 5 favourite things your love to do. 

• Pick your number one. (Write your Vehicle and Contribution in reverse).

• How can you train in the area of your Mission?

• How do your skills affect people?  (Write your Mission and Vision in reverse).

Example:

Contribution = What you want to see revealed in the world? [Inspire others].

Vehicle = How you are going to do it? [Teaching young children].

#Talent #Skills #ContributionStatement #SpokeInsight