In this series of blog posts, which I am calling "Something for Yourself", I am going to explore a number of ways in which you can develop your own personal growth.  I'm going to talk about a few of the ways I have grown and learned about myself in the hopes that it can help someone else do the same.  

In today's post I am going to discuss writing your own personal mission statement.  This is something that I learned from a senior partner at my firm who runs the women's initiative.  She recently talked to our women's group about how she's had her own personal mission statement for twenty years.  One of the most important things she talked about is that it's not just a matter of writing the mission statement, it's also about checking in with yourself each month to see if you're living your life according to your goals.  

Personally, I wish I had written my mission statement a long time ago, but I do believe that the idea was presented to me at a moment in my life where I really needed some direction and guidance.  I had all of these ideas in my head of things I wanted to do and ways in which I wanted to live my life, but I had never taken time to write them down and organize them in a way that would allow me to take steps in the right direction.  

Writing a personal missions statement may seem unnecessary to you, but just ask yourself if you could use a roadmap to follow in order to live the life you've always imagined.  That's what my personal mission statement is to me.  

This may seem too time-consuming or overwhelming, but I have found a tool that helps you write your personal mission statement with your own words.  When I Googled "writing your own personal mission statement" one of the first links that came up was for Franklin Covey.  I always knew about them in terms of planners, but I didn't realize that they had other tools available.  

The Franklin Covey mission statement builder was easy to use and made me think about things that I never would have thought to include in my own mission statement. The final product is something that I have continually gone back to and re-read to help me assess whether or not I'm following the path I've laid out for myself.  Like their website says, I want to "live with purpose" and this tool has allowed me to figure out what that journey will look like.

Once you have written your personal mission statement I think it is important to set short-term and long-term goals for yourself, so my next post will be all about goal setting.   

If you have any personal development strategies that you would like to share or discuss, please leave a comment below.

I have recently decided to spend some of my extra time on personal development.  Reading "self help" books has always been something that I've enjoyed, so I decided to ask for a recommendation from someone else who has read a lot of them.  The first book they suggested was The Slight Edge.  I looked it up online and liked the description, so I bought the e-book and just finished reading it today.  

Honestly, I think this book might change my life.  That may seem like a bold statement, but The Slight Edge has completely shifted the way my brain works and I don't think I'll ever think the same way again.  Here is the description from Amazon so you can read for yourself what the book is about:

"The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson in 8th edition of his popular book again helps readers learning how to realize the dreams and not be someone who just dreams while life passes by.

He sees the solution in the introduction of his Slight Edge principle that can be applicable not only to our profession, but also marriage, relationships, friendship, love, almost anything in our lives.
What is most interesting about this book is that most things found inside are common sense, although it's often forgotten.

For example when he says "...The average person spends between 250 and 350 hours every year driving to and from this place and that. That's about forty minutes to an hour each and every day. If you spend that time listening to educational and self-improvement material, you'll have the equivalent of a Ph.D. on any subject you choose in just a few years. That's the Slight Edge...." or "...being productive and being busy and not necessarily the same thing. Doing things won't create your success; doing the right thing will..." reader has to agree with him.

Maybe some readers will be disappointed to realize that slight edge is not some complex principle, something difficult or unique of which you have never heard before.
Slight Edge is actually about the driving force in our life that pulls us closer or moves us away from our goals.

The difference between these two diametrically opposite sides is someone ability to accept this philosophy and advances, with small or large steps toward the goal.

Overall, Jeff Olson's work is very inspiring and motivating piece, well-written and easy to read, and due to all those reasons, a book that can be recommended.

I hope this post has inspired you to take the time to read The Slight Edge, I truly believe it will change your life just as it has mine! 

Every once in a while my mom hears about something cool to do in Denver and asks me to come with her.  This is what happened a couple of weeks ago when she heard about a tour being given at Riverside Cemetery for a few short weeks in October.  The tour is of the cemetery's "history and mystery" by moonlight.  You could chose to do the tour at twilight, sunset, or moonlight.  We chose to do sunset so that we would still be able to see a lot of the cemetery before it got dark.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the tour...

Overall, the tour was really interesting and informative.  I'm happy we did it and glad that we chose the sunset tour so we could see the amazing sunset over the mountains.

I can hardly believe that this is the 20th week of my happiness project!  How did that much time go by already?

For the month of February I am going to focus on learning new things.  Last week I decided to listen to some podcasts from Stuff You Should Know.  This week I am changing it up and moving on to documentaries.  I did some looking around on Netflix and found a few documentaries that looked interesting.  The one I am definitely going to watch this week is called I Am.  Here's a summary from Netflix:

"In this contemplative documentary, filmmaker Tom Shadyac conducts in-depth interviews with prominent philosophers and spiritual leaders -- including Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- about what ails the world and how to improve it."

It sounds very interesting, so I am looking forward to watching it.  Next week I will highlight some non-fiction books that I've recently added to my to-read list.

Are you a fan of documentaries?  Leave a comment letting me know which one is your all-time favorite.

For the second week of February I will continue on with my goal of learning as much as possible.  Last week I talked about signing up for an email where I'd receive an interesting random fact of the day.  I found two sites worth checking out.  The first one is called TodayIFoundOut.com and the second one is called MentalFloss.com. 

Here are some of the facts that I found interesting:

• The Eiffel Tower leans slightly toward the shade on sunny days.
• It is estimated that 1 out of every 55 Canadian women will give birth in their car on the way to the hospital.
  
• Grumpy Cat's lawyer also represents the intellectual property rights of Mike Tyson's face tattoo.
• Twitter's bird logo is named Larry, for Larry Bird.
• All California license plates are made in prisons.

And for this week I am going to spend some time listening to podcasts from Stuff You Should Know on HowStuffWorks.com.  I am already subscribed to their podcast, so I've got a lot of options to choose from.

Here are the ones I'm thinking of listening to:

• Your Limb is Torn Off - Now What?
• How Underwater Tunnels Work
• How Chocolate Works
• What's With the Winchester Mystery House?
• How Much Money is in the World?
• How Ejection Seats Work
• How Police Chases Work

As you can see, there is a wide variety of topics to listen to.  Now that I've picked out seven different podcasts, I have something to listen to every day!

If you've ever listened to the Stuff You Should Know podcasts, let me know what some of your favorites are.  I'd like some recommendations for future listening!

For the end of the fourth month of my happiness project, I am wrapping up my focus on health and wellness.  I am proud to report that I lost almost 8 pounds in January, which is a great head start on what will hopefully be a lifelong journey of being healthy.  Even though the month is over, I plan on continuing the good habits I developed last month in hopes of continuing my weight loss and improving my health even further.

Now that February has started, it's time to shift my focus to another aspect of my happiness.  This month I will be spending time on learning.  I have always enjoyed learning new things and in February I am going to make an effort to add learning to my every day routine.  The first thing I'm going to do this month is to sign up for a daily email of random facts.  I am hoping to learn all kinds of interesting things and also have cool tidbits to share with friends and family.  I'll follow up next week and throughout this month with some of the most interesting things I learn!

I haven't decided where to find a daily email of random facts, so if you know of a good one let me know so I can check it out.