Whether you're a student, family member, employee, entrepreneur or business owner -- somewhere along the way you have or will be asked to focus your interests and goals to define the direction your life will take. Many have faced this moment more than once in their lives. A change in education, marital status, job, or income can bring about real challenges in a person's life. How to handle this change can be the beginning of understanding what is important to you, what you are meant to do, and believing what you are capable of achieving. Understanding begins with creating a personal mission statement.

"A mission statement declares why you exist' says Don Midgett, business consultant and author of Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path to a Successful Business Future,

"It identifies your purpose and reason for being as a personal statement that helps lead you to the work you do on your chosen path."

Your personal vision statement will describe your desired future - what you want to become. Once you have your personal mission statement defined, you can determine your horizon for the future and create a personal vision statement that describes your desired future. Once we have these two statements defined and understood, how we are going to get there starts to make itself known.

Pablo Picasso, the famous 20th century Spanish painter was quoted as having said 'our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.' The time, the effort in getting to know yourself will you create the life you want.

Joanne S. lost her job she really enjoyed with a major cell phone company. When asked what she thought her job was she replied, selling cell phones. Asked what benefit that supplied to another, Joanne understood that what she actually enjoyed doing was helping others stay connected. She had liked the job she had but now had more options. Joanne could now seek out other jobs or businesses that fulfilled a similar service for others.

Create your mission and vision statement and empower your future - start today. Begin to lay the solid foundation for your strategic plan and planning process. To see better the importance of a mission statement and vision statement, to view examples and to read what empowerment people have experienced, go to www.missionvisionstatement.com. There you will learn more about creating a mission statement and the development and use of your vision statement.