Crafting Your Personal Manifesto: A Roadmap to Intentional Living
In a fast-paced world where life often feels like an endless race, taking a moment to reflect and realign with one's core values can be transformative. Creating a personal manifesto serves as a guiding document that embodies your mission statement, core values, and goals, helping you live intentionally and with clarity. In this blog post, we'll delve into the elements of crafting a personal manifesto, including creating mission and vision statements, and setting practical goals. Whether you're seeking to define your personal mission statement, establish core values, or implement 12-week goals for intentional living, this guide draws from productivity insights and philosophical principles to empower your journey.
Introduction: Embracing Intentionality
The purpose of this document is to give you more clarity and focus in your life so that you're living more intentionally, more with your purpose and your values in mind. As a lot of us know, life can get difficult, challenging, and busy, and we get caught up in default mode where we're just doing our normal routines without much passion or intention behind our actions. This guide helps you slow down, reflect, and delve into what makes you unique as a person, addressing important questions like: What is your purpose? How do you live by it? How do you come up with core values?
I'm sure a lot of this you already know in some sense, but often, as with my clients as a therapist and social worker—and I can speak for myself too—we have a loose idea of our personal mission statement, values, or goals, but we don't take the time to clarify and focus them. This guide is hands-on: I'll share examples from my own personal manifesto and pull from key resources and books I've read in my journey, including my keen interest in productivity. I've followed the Bookworm podcast for years, where they read a new productivity book every two weeks, and through the last five years, I've gained a strong sense of advice on personal development and productivity.
At a high level, think of it like the book Getting Things Done by David Allen, with its notion of a 50,000-foot perspective—the larger vision zoomed out from day-to-day tasks and immediate demands. Often, we get stuck in the rat race, busy putting out fires, and our lives aren't optimized. This guide encourages you to set time aside to zoom out and walk through creating your personal manifesto.
Section 1: Establishing Your Mission and Vision
This is module one, where I'll walk you through how to come up with your own personal mission statement—your ultimate mission—along with your core values or principles and vision statement.
First, consider Stephen Covey, who in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about beginning with the end in mind. This means reverse engineering: An idea is first created in your mind and then in reality, mentally and then physically. Your mission statement should be grounded in timeless, universal values and principles, addressing the totality of your life—not just your career or single role, but all roles, responsibilities, career, and personal life. It's all-encompassing, evolves over time with your age and life trajectory, looks beyond you, and involves thinking big, dreaming, and aiming for your life.
To determine your mission statement, reflect on these core questions from Covey: "I am at my best when I'm truly happy." "I want to be a person who..." Take 15 to 30 minutes to contemplate. Think about highlights from your past—times you were most excited, charged, inspired. There's usually a thread in your life interests or talents from a young age, like playing with electronics, photography, running, or gymnastics, bringing joy. It's about discovering your mission, perhaps tied to a soul contract or purpose beyond yourself.
Also, list five to 10 role models from your past or present, and their characteristics to shape the kind of person you want to be. Your mission statement is a succinct statement about your ultimate reasons for being here—your ultimate why.
This ties into David Allen's Getting Things Done, with its 50,000-foot perspective—your highest view on life. List three guiding stars: Why do you exist? What are your unique talents? How can you use them to serve others? What gives you joy and fulfillment? What would you do with only six months to live, or without money worries? Take 30 minutes to an hour reflecting.
Covey and Allen encourage regular reviews of your mission statement, values, and vision every quarter, like business reviews, to align your activities and roles.
Now, consider the notion of an essentialism audit from Greg McKeown's Essentialism: The vital few versus the trivial many. Scale back, discern activities contributing most to success and happiness, eliminate the rest. With so much information and demands—kids, work stressors, hobbies—we're stretched thin. Focus on essential activities using the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule: A small number of tasks generate most results. Work smarter, not harder, by saying no kindly to non-essential activities. This helps when thinking about your mission, values, and vision—avoid fear of missing out, focus on essentials: What activities to drop? What are vital versus trivial? Less but better.
This reminds me of Cal Newport, who in Deep Work and Slow Productivity talks about working at a natural pace and obsessing over quality—a craft mindset. In our distracted world with social media, we become superficial; deep work produces classic, impactful results. Principles: Discern essential from non-essential, eliminate, say no more (especially if agreeable by personality). Even as a generalist, refine using 80/20.
In stoicism, mortality is key, as in Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks: You only have about 4,000 weeks. Understand life's shortness to think about legacy—what outlives you, how you're remembered. It's not morbid but fosters humility, gratitude, clarity. Stoics like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius practiced "Memento Mori"—remember you will die—to appreciate the present, prioritize virtue, avoid trivialities. Adopt this: I use Obsidian with a template showing life expectancy percentage as a daily reminder. This ties to minimalism and essentialism—what's really important with limited time? Be pragmatic, dream big, but accept you won't get everything done; productivity is doing what counts, prioritizing rest.
This connects to existential therapy, focused on human experiences: Four key concerns—death (inevitability of mortality), freedom (responsibility and anxiety of choice), isolation (gap between individuals), meaninglessness (search for purpose). Thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard emphasize a leap of faith for your dream and vision—mindset matters. Mortality is central: It motivates authentic living; avoiding it leads to distraction. Hone in on your mission, vision, values.
Finally, Aristotle's golden mean in virtue ethics: Virtue lies in the middle between extremes, like courage between cowardice and recklessness, generosity between stinginess and extravagance. Anchor in heart (passion), head (intellect), gut (intuition)—align all three for framing your mission, values, vision.
In summary, we covered Covey's end in mind, Allen's 50,000 feet, essentialism and saying no, limited time in Four Thousand Weeks, Memento Mori, virtue ethics, and existential therapy to inform your values and mission.
Walking Through My Own Mission, Vision, and Values
In this section, I'll walk you through my personal mission statement, values, and vision, explaining how I frame them.
My personal manifesto is created using OmniOutliner on Mac, but you can use Obsidian, a Word document, or paper—digital for easy access on devices.
Ultimate mission: "Soul unequivocally living my heart's calling, expressing my core passion for visual creativity and transformative listening for the betterment and growth of humanity with AI." Have it as one succinct sentence, per Covey. Brainstorm paragraphs first, refine with AI if needed, but from your words. Mine evolved over time. I code chakras by color, add images for inspiration—like a mood board, collapsible.
Vision: A bit longer—describe your life in five years in detail: Lifestyle, career, relationships, home, physical health, athletics, financials, side ventures, learning, community, travel, wellbeing, spiritual health. I split into sections: Clear, focused minimalistic life; full-time clinician/RSW/life coach in inspiring Toronto studio; smooth workflow embracing tech. Relationship: Loving wife, stylish condo/townhouse, expecting second child. Physical: Fit with endurance, workout six days (run, bike, yoga), races six to seven times/year in top 20%, plant-based diet. Earn a great income annually, debts paid, emergency fund; small videography business with high-quality gear; electric car. Include continued learning, travel, spiritual health.
Add ideal day snapshot: Wake rested, healthy meals; arrive at practice enthusiastic; train at gym/run; home to family warmth; creative pursuits like videography; intimate moments; end fulfilled, regret-free.
Use AI like ChatGPT, MidJourney or Grok to generate images from descriptions for motivation—words and visuals.
Values: Five to six core ones—abstract aims: Supporting and advancing humanity's flourishing (as therapist/creator); devoting to spirit entirely; leading courageously, standing for truth; optimally healthy, fit, strong; living core passion for visual creativity; heroically pursuing integration/cohesion (psychological/emotional growth). Frame as daily reminders. Consider philosophy's good, true, beautiful for alignment.
This inspires understanding key manifesto aspects, organizing roles/responsibilities, and aligning 12-week goals with vision, mission, values. Work on worksheets: 30 minutes to an hour reflecting on past, talents, role models.
Section 2: Roles and Responsibilities
In this lesson, I'll go through roles and responsibilities, touching on areas of focus first—this is ancient Stoic philosophy about aiming for virtue, finding the mean between opposites.
In my vision section, I define three main areas: Business (high-quality cinematic storytelling for innovative businesses/community causes); work (facilitating growth for individuals/couples/families); personal (intimate relationships with friends/family supporting depth/growth).
From Cal Newport's Deep Work, identify two most impactful activities per area (80/20): For business, mastering industry techniques, editing efficiently. For health: Run consistently, gym regularly, stretch; eat healthy/organic/plants. Split into health/wellness, financial, love/relationships, spirituality with high-impact habits.
For identity/roles, from David Sparks' course: Focus on roles over goals for productivity—continuously improve. Frame as relationships with others, work, self; or personal (relationships/inner life), work, side business, academic.
List roles: Brother, son, uncle, friend, partner; psychotherapist/social worker; elite runner, athlete, meditator, journaler, spiritual explorer, reader; psycho-educator, coach, integralist, filmmaker, video editor, YouTuber, photographer, boyfriend/future husband.
For each, define ideal (arete): Elite runner—run consistently, compete in races with sub-20-minute 5K/sub-40-minute 10K. List without overcomplicating—cover main life aspects. Add characteristics: Clear, determined, confident, focused, passionate, depth, educated, healthy, integrity, tech-savvy, productive. Include past photos for inspiration.
Take a day or two: List roles, define ideals—collapsible in document. This sets benchmark for being a good friend, partner, etc.
Section 3: Harnessing Energies: Light and Dark
In the last section, we covered identity—roles, areas of focus, defining ideals. Refine over time.
Now, reasons why: I term light energy and dark energy. For many, if religious, there's good/light versus evil/dark. When serving potential/God/universe, you're in light energy; bad habits/situations lead to dark.
Visualize: What would life be like living absolute potential (light)? Versus squandering it (dark)? For light: It's the right thing; what God/spirit/universe sent me for; others count on my success; to live fulfilled, meaningful, purposeful life. Add photos.
For dark: Don't want unhappiness, procrastination/stuckness; live from better angels, not insecurities; I'm worth more; anything less isn't good enough.
List four to five points each—brainstorm what highest ideal feels like, impacts on self/others/self-esteem/wellbeing if squandered. Get inspiration, adapt to you.
Section 4: Setting Goals: The 12-Week Year
I just covered reasons why—light/dark energy. Now, yearly theme and 12-week goals, from my research, books, courses, experiments.
Yearly theme: Better than New Year's resolutions (most fail—stats show under a quarter fulfill; gym crowds fade). Podcasts/books suggest theme: Higher-level, abstract priority. What top focus? Year of balance, rejuvenation, contemplation, abundance, slowing down? Self-awareness key. From Essentialism and The ONE Thing by Gary Keller: Narrow to most essential/one focus.
Mine: Year of preparation—for budget security, abundance in relationships/travel/money; prioritize finances/books. Display on fridge/phone for reminders.
Final: 12-week goals from The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran—agile method like tech sprints. Three-month goals, weekly sprints/reviews, incorporate feedback, pivot. Year too broad/wiggle room; 12 weeks immediate but sprintable.
Use SMART goals or from Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal. Envision three months, reverse-engineer: By month one/two, here; weekly short wins. Track progress, accountability partner (share wisely—supportive people).
I list 10 goals from roles/areas: Different from role (infinite game) versus current project (finite). Living document—return continuously; separate goals if preferred.
Conclusion: Revisiting and Revising Your Manifesto
This is the end—I've walked you through creating your personal manifesto. Encourage finishing it: Many clients lack concreteness in mission/values. Risk: Default mode, easy way out. But intentional, concrete writing/review counters that—daily/weekly/monthly for inspiration/focus.
In my life, living with intention/aim makes me happier, more passionate. As we age or face setbacks, discouragement/hopelessness hits, but reset—remind of childhood passions/interests—for fulfilled, intentional life.
Thank you, and have a great day.
