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Pleasing Allah is an ongoing process. Personal Mission Statement can be an effective tool for this.


What is the purpose of my life? What should be my priority? What should I achieve? What will give me contentment? Such questions occur frequently to thinking people.


People answer these questions in different ways. Some people believe the purpose of life is getting wealthy. But what will their purpose be after they have collected millions of rupees. What will be their purpose after they get these million? If the purpose of life is to become wealthy, there will be no purpose after becoming wealthy. And in fact, here comes the problem.


Can Wealth be an Aim?


We often hear of a millionaire committing suicide. Sometimes, not the millionaire himself, but his wife, son, or daughter. Wealth can do a little to bring happiness, if one is not sure about his end or his fate. Many do not know the purpose of their life.


Worshipping Allah as an Aim


In Islam, the purpose of life is to worship Allah. The term “Worship” covers all acts of obedience to Allah. The Islamic purpose of life is a standing purpose. The true Muslim sticks to this purpose throughout all the stages of his life, whether he is a child, adolescent, adult, or an old man.


Now “Worship Allah” does not just mean few rituals and do’s and don’t. It means living a life which is worth living, striving to make this world a better place to live and in the process humbly trying to please Allah.


Pleasing Allah is an ongoing process. It needs planning and consistency. Personal Mission Statement can be an effective tool in the process.


What is a Personal Mission Statement?


A Personal mission statement is a short, descriptive statement of the common objective and focus of the Individual. It is their purpose for existence.


Develop Your Personal Mission Statement


Steps for Writing Personal Mission Statement


1. Reflect on the key values and principles you want to use as a guide for your life. Values may vary among us, but correct principles are shared by all good people.


2. Ponder questions like: What do you want your life to be about in order to give it purpose and meaning? Think about how much better this world would be if each person were dedicated to lifting the lives of everyone we touch.


3. “Brainstorm” with yourself, parents, relatives, teachers, religious leaders, counselors and friends about your strengths, talents, deep-felt values and principles which are most important to you. Read biographies of people you admire.


4. View your personal Mission Statement as your “Personal Constitution” Like the Constitution of a country, your Personal Mission Statement can be amended over time if so inspired. It will always reflect your fundamental values, purposes and principles which will guide you through the thousands of decisions you will make in your lifetime.


5. Find a quiet place, inside or outside where you can spend some quality uninterrupted time pondering and reflecting in order to write your Personal Mission Statement. It need not be too long.. It should inspire you and cause you to stretch but not break.


6. Ask, “Does this statement inspire me?” While it does not totally reflect where you are today, it helps you to stretch to become better and is a guide. Write in the “present tense” as if you are doing it. You will enjoy the “power of purpose” as a result of getting a vision of what you want your life to be.


But all this is not possible without accepting the fact that to achieve success in life one needs to change the attitude towards life. Let’s see what Zig Ziglar, the most sought-after authority on leadership and motivation says on how to change one‘s outlook towards life. The celebrated author of 24 books is known to possess an armoury of knowledge and insight that has helped transform several large corporations. Ziglar was speaking at a Strategy Summit in Mumbai recently.


The 78-year-old Ziglar spoke at length about how a positive attitude is the key to attaining a balanced successful life. Everybody needs to have balanced goals to attain success and joy. He expressed the point that positive thinking will not let you do anything but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. He stressed that it is very important to define and understand what success is.


Ziglar said, “Success must never be measured by how much money you have. Success is where you are in comparison to where you began. Try to look at your weakness and convert it into your strength. That’s Success.” And relationships matter a lot to be successful. He says, “You were born to win, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” Failure is an event, it is not a person.


His advice is to look at life positively. The key to doing so, he says is changing from a negative mindset to a positive mindset without changing the input from negative to positive. Therefore the conclusion is, think positive and life will be positive.


The next thing to possess is the right mental attitude. Harvard and Standford University have validated that 85% of the reason a person gets a job and gets ahead in that job is because of their attitude. Hence, much of what we do and who we become is controlled by our mental attitude. People with positive mental attitudes are likely to respond to problems, while those with negative mental attitudes will simply react. Its more satisfying to respond than to react. That’s why it’s important to develop and maintain the right attitude, adds Ziglar.


So, how can you change your attitude? Mr Ziglar explained that there were three things you can do now to change your attitude — Change your mental diet, become a good finder by not looking for other’s faults and change your self talk from negative to positive. Self-talk, he says, is the most powerful, most significant, most life changing procedure you will ever encounter.


The other important element to be successful is courage. He says 97% of people live in the comfort zone and 3% of the people live in the effective zone. The difference between comfort and effective zone is growth. And growth is never comfortable.


A mental conception of your personal career mission statement is not enough. You must write it down on paper and put it up on your wall—ideally, where you can see it every day. And if it needs to be changed or modified over time, go ahead and make the change. But keep your career mission statement sharply focused in your mind. As you focus in on your larger goal, your short-term goals will also become clearer.


The writer can be reached at mhl@rediffmail.com