"What is your mission statement?"

Bernard Amadei, the founder of the entire Engineers Without Borders organization gave a talk at Smith College a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see it, but I wish I had-he is quite the speaker. I watched this video of Dr. Amadei giving a short acceptance speech for the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Leadership Award he received in 2009 and I encourage you to check it out. In it Dr. Amadei encourages every organization and individual to know their mission statement and act on it. The mission statement of Engineers Without Borders is to help communities worldwide develop sustainable solutions to better their qualityof life and that is what we strive for in our projects. But Dr. Amadei takes the idea of a mission statement one step further. The mission statement, traditionally thought of as something only organizations and companies have, he thinks should be something every individual has to guide their life. To have a mission statement is to have something to work towards. A mission statement gives you something to look at when trying to make a decision or when assessing past actions--will this decision further my mission? Did that action fit into the goals of my mission? We all know we want things in life and have goals, but in hectic times it is often difficult to remember what they are and what our major life priorities really should be. Dr. Amadei encourages us to take the time to figure out what those priorities are and how we want to impact the world we live in. "What" Dr. Amadei asks "is your mission statement?"