Day 2: Defining Your Mission
Welcome to day 2 of the 5 Day Practice Makeover Challenge.
Yesterday we examined how perspective is vital to maintaining a vision for your practice.
Today we’ll look at defining your mission.
Reflection:
Are you able to clearly state the mission of your therapy practice or life coaching business? This is about having clarity as to why your therapy practice or life coaching business exists. Your mission is the driving force - the engine - of your practice.
A mission statement shouldn’t be generated simply because every other therapy practice or life coaching business has one. It also shouldn't be generic or vague. Your values are on display in your mission.
Tim Berry, the originator of Lean Business Planning, says he loves it when a mission statement defines a business so well that it feels like strategy.
Your mission is what gives you purpose.
Berry goes on to say that “A good mission statement: Defines what the practice does for its clients.
Some will go even further to include what the practice does for its community and the world.
Think about what makes your practice unique. Do you have extra training/specialization or theory approaches different than other clinicians or coaches in your community? If your mission statement could be used by some other therapist or life coach, then it’s definitely not specific enough.
Action:
Take time to get clear on your mission:
What do you want to achieve as a therapist or life coach - for yourself and for your clients? Include community and beyond if applicable.
Put your mission statement into one or two concise sentences. Some practice mission statements begin more broadly in the first sentence, but the second sentence is much more specific as to how they’ll accomplish the first.
Is your mission realistic enough to be achievable?
Again, don’t rush through this exercise. Your mission is your foundation. If your foundation is unstable, you won’t be able to build a highly productive practice on top of it.