A Mission Statement, The Difference and OMF

A mission statement identifies a purpose, vision, values and relationship in life. There is strength in a mission statement, particularly when it deals with a fundamental role in life.

In 1977, I wrote a two-mission statement that forever changed my life and that of my family. The first one was to start it with a purpose in mind and the other was to put first things first with a conviction that ‘there’s no turning back’ – goodbye Philippines, see you after twenty years.

This has been the guidepost of our lives while starting anew in a country that was foreign to us.

This mission statement basically found its mark in almost all of our endeavors. Though success could not be measured by the thickness of our wallet or bank account, the place we live in, the kind of car we drive or the friends we associate with, I could relatively say that the mission statement we drew for ourselves had worked in our favor.

On Christmas of 1997, I found myself on board an international flight going back to the Philippines and wrote the same mission statement I did twenty years ago. This time it covered my month-long itinerary. I was more specific on one thing, to stay in Oas for a week and a day’s stroll along the Cabilogan River and visit a family consistent with my mission statement: to find out how the family was doing.

When I got down to Oas, I told my Aunt of my plan to visit this family. She didn’t really understand my motive. “Why don’t you just visit them a week before your return flight. I have  a lot of things to show you”.  “No”, I said a little too firmly. “ I really want to see them.” 

As I was walking to their house, I had cold feet. What would they think of me, popping in to visit after all these years? Why did I think they would be happy to see me? I almost turned around and return to my Aunt’s house.

When I walked into their little shack, they both lit up. We drank cold water from the clay ‘dawd’ and ate guavas, santol and papaya freshly picked from their backyard; my visit lasted for almost three hours.

They told me stories about what it was when I left and how their way of life never changed after all these years; their relatives and friends who had lived and died without having to advance their way of life for the last twenty years.