Throughout the last couple of months, we have spoken about the many facets of leadership and management.  When you say leadership and management to most people, they conjure up visions of teams and groups.

However, leadership and management apply to yourself as well. How do you lead yourself?  How do you manage yourself? I have noticed that truly great leaders and managers start with leading and managing themselves.  This process often starts with understanding what personal vision and mission are being pursued.

I am often greeted with guffaws when I ask a person if they have a personal mission statement, as if the concept only applied to organizations and businesses.  If you do not have a vision of yourself in the world, how do you know if you are accomplishing anything?  How do you know at the end of every day whether you are closer or farther away from your life goals.

When the film, The Bucket List, came out, I heard alot of talk about what should be on people's list.  If you were one of those who considered adding items to your own bucket list, then how many of them have you accomplished?  How many of them match your own personal vision and mission?

There are many things in your life that cannot be known.  In risk terms, they are our own personal unknown unknowns.  One of those unknown unknowns is how much time is left to accomplish our personal mission whatever that may be.

Consider these two brief lines from Verse 71* of the Tao.  Then, consider what you are going to do today to increase your knowledge and decrease your distance from accomplishing your own personal mission.

"Knowing what cannot be known --
     what a lofty aim!
Not knowing what needs to be known --
     what a terrible result"

*Tao Te Ching, The Definitive Edition, Lao Tzu with Translation and Commentary by Jonathan Star, Jeremy P Tarcher/Penguin, 2001, page 84