I'm in the middle of a very time-consuming editorial project. For this week, I'll be posting excerpts from my newsletter, The Wordy Woman, also available on my website.
Wordy Woman- Issue 1 -September 2005
Do you have a personal statement of purpose? Some people call it a mission statement. My mother had a more succinct, albeit less eloquent, way of putting it. "You have to stand for something," she said.
Ten years ago I was at a seminar and the speaker asked us to write down our statements of purpose. I panicked. I sat immobile as I watched everyone around me writing furiously. Not wanting to appear shallow or unmotivated, I wrote "My Purpose" on the top of a page. Then I drew flowers and hearts with my gel pen until the speaker mercifully continued with his presentation. But the exercise was not lost on me. I thought about it often.
It took me two years to write a statement that I didn't cross out, delete or crumple up. Then another three years to perfect it to the point that I felt truly expressed my raison d'être. Here is my statement of purpose.
To inspire, motivate and educate women, giving them the information and resources they need to accomplish their own personal goals, so that we can work together to make this world a better place.
I began on the pages of my journal, writing plans, lists and essays. It's one thing to write or speak your intentions. It's entirely something else to act on them. I found the courage to move forward in the words of other women, some well known, some known only to their friends and family. I began my "coming out" just about two years ago. Topping my action list of things to do in order to reach my goals were these three items: start a creative women's group, put up a website, publish a newsletter or ezine.
Do not underestimate the power of your pen, nor the power of what we can accomplish individually and together as women. If you have not yet begun, then start today. Write now.
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