Lisa 101: Mission

These are the verbs that drive me. They’re now a three-part mission which, in 2019 and beyond, will strengthen work, leisure, and shenanigans with focus and intention:
> Create >> Innovate
> Grow >> Transform
> Collaborate >> Conspire

Backstory

I’ve spent most of my life eschewing big-picture goals. This hasn’t been out of laziness or shortsightedness, but rather a desire to be open to the opportunities life puts in front of me. I tend to get hyper-focused on responsibilities and tasks, so I’ve purposely avoided giving myself goal “assignments.” I mean, who wants to miss a ride on a magical unicorn because you’ve got your head under the hood of your extraordinarily ordinary mini van?

The older I get, though, the less willing I am to waste time, which can happen easily when you don’t have a clear credo to guide your hours, weeks, days, and months. And those smaller units add up fast to years — perhaps even decades.

So, with encouragement during a career-hacking meetup with the Beer & Napkins VUCA Session Group in early 2019, I made a little compromise with myself and began to think in terms of a broad personal mission. A purpose. The WHY of my time on Earth. I reasoned that this will help me determine what paths to pursue. Perfect, right?

Then I mulled the word “path.” It’s a nice word — a really nice word, actually. It reminds me of hiking in a sunsplattered forest, birds singing, water rushing in the distance, no sounds or signs of civilization, only padded footsteps along an easy-breezy path.

Wait. Easy?? Hmmmmm.

The path experience sounds pleasant, but “easy” isn’t really my style. No one gets that glorious feeling of exhaustion and accomplishment from “easy,” for heaven’s sake. I finally landed on “adventure” as a better word. A mission could help me determine what adventures to pursue!

This insight wasn’t valuable to me because I think my life should be nothing but one crazy adventure after another. It was valuable because I realized that a perfectly worthy and benevolent word (i.e., “path”) could generate a higher level of excitement, meaning, and alignment if I just took it to the next level (i.e., “adventure”). You know — jack that puppy up a bit. So, as I dived deeply inside myself to identify the core of my WHY — my bliss — I also took each concept to the next level.

The basic >> the captivating

This mission exercise may gradually and continually morph, but for now these three sets of two words have made the cut:

• Create >> Innovate
  Creating seems almost as essential as food and water, but merely creating doesn’t measure up to innovating a shiny new thing into existence.

• Grow >> Transform
  Learning and growing incrementally is rewarding in many ways, but the experience of positive transformation — whether it’s myself, an endeavor, an entity, or the lives of others — is unparalleled.

• Collaborate >> Conspire
  Sure, it’s cool to collaborate on a project, but it’s grandly heroic to conspire around an idea.

The first word in each set is a foundational part of me which aligns with an innate, instinctive tendency. Each of these things is something I really enjoy and naturally strive to do, whether I’m at work, home, or play. Alignment with at least one of the three “first words” is now a minimum requirement for any new undertaking in my life. Additionally, any current undertaking that does not meet this same minimum requirement is in danger of being eliminated.

The second word in each set takes the first a step higher, adding a twist of sweet, disruptive delight. Perhaps each is now — gasp, dare I say it — a goal. If I’m lucky, these words may even become requirements soon.

If you’re not bored yet, move on to the Lisa 101: Career page.