I love a good manifesto. In fact, I have these three in my kitchen.
I wrote this manifesto in my twenties:
embrace my spirituality. CULL WISDOM. Pull out the bones and marrow of life. ALLOW RELATIONSHIPS TO GROW. Serve inwardly and outwardly… MAKE IT HOW I LIVE AND NEVER WHAT I “DO.” Value Balance. FOSTER NATURAL APPRECIATION. Appreciate all those things that merit appreciation. CELEBRATE SIMPLICITY. Be concerned with how I leave things while reflecting on how I am left. LOVE PEOPLE NOT THINGS. Generate voice, facilitate expression. TAKE BIG BITES. Send Flowers. FEEL. Laugh. USE MY PASSION.
I was a few years into college, and I had this intense desire to pin down how I wanted to be in the world. I figured out my values, put words around them and then captured them in little direct statements. When I was done, I transcribed those sentences onto a white poster board with bright letters. That poster board moved with me many times over the next few years.
To someone else, it might have seemed silly but, to me, that little manifesto was a blueprint for how I wanted to be in a world that seemed to be moving quickly. It was a way to ground me in how I wanted to be when a lot of different options were in front of me.
Not long after that, I started writing mission statements- powerful one sentence statements that described exactly what my purpose was in the world at that moment in time. My most recent mission statement reads: Rosie Molinary empowers women to embrace their authentic selves so they can live their passion and purpose and give their gifts to the world. It’s a couple years old and I am itching to update it.
When people ask me what I do, explaining how I do what I do can be a bit of a quagmire. I teach. I write. I give a lot of time to a nonprofit that is incredibly important to me. But explaining WHAT I do is so much more clear– I really want to empower people to embrace who they are- without apologies- and live on purpose because I believe their soul is meant to be a gift to this world. The writing, the teaching, whatever, are just expressions of that, manifestations of how I live my mission. I hope that I live my purpose not just when I am teaching but when I am talking to someone in the checkout line, too.
One of this year’s most incredible gifts has been living my purpose through the Passion. Purpose. Plunge retreats that I offer in person and virtually. These retreats are all about clearing space and offering an ear and encouragement as wonderful women make way in their life to live on purpose, to give their soul to the world in some way. During many of these retreats, we write a mission statement for the retreat participant and what I have learned is that those mission statements are a game changer for so many of my clients. It is like they can finally see and claim what they are capable of and meant to be doing. It’s a thrilling thing.
Because I know from my own life what a difference a manifesto and a mission statement can make and because I have seen over and over again what a difference they are making to my clients, I am hosting a workshop that focuses just on that– writing a powerful personal mission statement and manifesto (or personal creed) and I am so excited about this offering.
In the greater Charlotte area? Join me on November 6th from 9:30 to 12:30 for Mission:: Manifest; it is going to be amazing!
