Write a Personal Mission Statement!
There is a reason that we all started coaching… We backed into it (got a job at a local gym during high school and just decided to stick with it), we decided that it matched our skill set and ability well, we love to work with children, we can’t pry ourselves away from athletics, etc. Whatever your reason for becoming a coach in the beginning, it is always good to examine your reasons for remaining a coach now.
A vast majority of people go through career changes in their lives for various reasons…
self assessment should lead us to ask the question, am I still coaching because I’m great at it, because I love it, because I don’t know what else to do, because I’m afraid I might not be good at anything else? 
The above questions are important for a number of reasons. First, we should know why we are currently doing a certain job or vocation. Knowing why we are currently committing ourselves to something helps us define the goals that we have in that career, the purpose behind our efforts and helps create or diminish the passion we bring to work with us daily. When we have a purpose and mission to what we do, we attack it head on with more energy and commitment. Second, by answering this question honestly, you can start to better prepare an outline for the next few years and what kind of role you want for yourself within the sport or outside of it.
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses as a coach will allow you to create a better cohesive plan for yourself and your coworkers.
Critical assessment of yourself and coworkers helps you properly utilize your strengths and the strengths of those around you. This allows you to simultaneously minimize weaknesses. There are multiple reasons why self assessment will be important in your life and career, and it would take a whole book, more research and cleverly told anecdotes to outline them. But in this blog, the point is to give you one strategy for how to move forward… Write yourself a Personal Mission Statement!
A mission statement is defined as follows: A formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual.
This is pointedly a very generic definition because there are no absolutes when it comes to mission statements. It is yours to craft however you see fit, just be sure to include your purpose and values.
My personal mission statement in life is this: “I aim to maximize my individual abilities in a way that will allow me to continually create a positive effect on the lives of those in my community.”
With regards to my coaching role: “My main purpose is to encourage, motivate and teach youth to maximize their strengths, diligently work on their weaknesses and ultimately live a life of integrity and devotion to being a kind, productive, helpful and passionate person. I take it as a responsibility that I am a mentor and example setter for every athlete. Therefore, I should do my best to lead by modeling the behaviors that will impact the world in a positive way.” And yes, I know that I don’t live up to this everyday!
Simply by sitting down and performing this exercise, you will be forced to consider your why. Maybe you think about this everyday and just need to properly define it. Perhaps you haven’t thought about it in years. Or there is a chance you simply forgot why you started in the first place. What do you love about your job? Do you get too caught up in the minutiae of the sport and forget that a major element of our job is to teach greater lessons of life as well? Take ten minutes/an hour/a day/a week to consider your purpose and your desired role. The positives of doing so may just be the boost you need to reinvest in yourself and your purpose. We all need to adjust our perspectives from time to time.
