Hi Friend
This week culminated our Values Refresh at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma (RFBO) All Staff Gathering. It was a delightful unveiling that couldn’t have gone any better. Primarily because when each updated value was revealed, one of the team members who was on the Square Root Group came up and announced it. It felt meaningful and important.
This was the result of three months of meetings and conversations that caused us to go from three to four values, with one of the former ones making the new list. A decade ago, I got to lead the first initiative to discover and describe the values. I hope in 10 years I’ll get to do the next iteration, keeping them relevant and precise.
I love getting to work with RFBO mostly because the people are awesome and the work they do, even more special. I grabbed a few numbers they shared: 41,370,315 meals distributed. Over 100k volunteer hours contributed. They had a retail recovery of 14.2 million pounds. They produced nearly 140k meals for summer feeding programs at 99 different sites. Also, 174k meals for seniors were distributed. They surpassed several other goals as well. WOW!!
If you’ve been around food insecurity at all, you realize just how significant ONE MEAL can be. You and I don’t live hungry. When that basic need is not met, almost nothing else in life matters or makes sense. It’s such honorable work. I love getting to contribute in even the smallest way to their world.
MISSION MATTERS
It’s so easy to value the RFBO mission. It offers a direct impact on the quality of life for thousands of people. Most of us don’t get that opportunity in our personal or professional lives – the feeling that every day the work we do really, really matters! Maybe you do, but most don’t. That’s why a personal mission is necessary for us to live motivated lives, because THAT we can control every single day. Our words, decisions and actions can alter another’s mind or heart.
Some jobs create more opportunities than others. School just started back and teachers will be shaping little minds, building confidence, nurturing growth and the love of learning. Life altering stuff!
For a long time I used Covey Tools that started with mission, then had roles which goals were built around. Being on mission every day fosters meaning and causes us to see the day differently. What mission are you on today? Is it an impossible one?
BEYOND a LIFETIME
What I love about a mission is that it can absolutely be worked on today, but also transcends one life. It encompasses a dream beyond reality and requires tactical daily effort. I’m referring to our personal mission. It’s got bigness and smallness simultaneously. The present and future working hand-in-hand. I love how the practicality and possibility creates tension.
Do you remember playing tug of war? In the early days of the summer camps I led we had tug-of-wars with 100 students on each side. There were a lot of rope burns! What’s the worst is when one side gives up and let’s go, releasing the stress. Everyone on the other side just falls down. The tautness is what keeps us pressing.
Have you ever been in something hard with someone and they stop trying? The pressure is removed but so is the potential for progress.
Instigating ideas…
1. Serve in a local food bank.
2. Tell someone your personal mission.
3. Encourage someone, who because of the tension wants to give up, to stick with it.
One of the essential components in crafting our life mission into words is to detach it from any career, job or business. Covey’s simple approach was to imagine our funeral and select the key people in our life who get up and speak. What do we want them to say about us? That is the basis for identifying and shaping our mission.
FORGET DEATH
As mentioned, mission is as much about today as it is the future. That’s why we have two eyes: One for the present, one for the eventual present. Today is last week, last month, last year’s future. What do we want the people around us now to say about us? Friends, colleagues, clients, even acquaintances have an impression and opinion. Do you know what those are?
This is why I’m so grateful for the Values Refresh at RFBO. Being deliberate about shaping the environment around what we deem most important, enables daily positive behaviors to thrive.
I hope this week you keep the tension of mission, applying yourself completely in the now with intention towards the upcoming now. You can impact someone’s world today, please do.