Mission and Vision Statements have been crafted by organizations for years. The attention to mission and vision is warranted, as studies indicate that organizations that have Mission and Vision Statements quite simply outperform those that do not.

Here are a few varied snapshots from e-book Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path To A Successful Business Future to show difference these statements can make in your business and life: •A family-owned inn had operated for three generations without turning a profit. The business covered basic expenses, but extra money was always scarce. Within one year of creating a mission and vision statement, inn reaped a profit of more than half a million dollars. •The public works organization for a city benefited from use of mission and vision statements and applying them. “It helped me to get a real team sense and feel for our Department” says a Public Works Director of his mission and vision journey. “I also had more credibility with team. I was able to make it work so that it benefited employees, so they felt good about their position. It helped give me more credibility with people I worked with and more cooperation from them – a great win-win situation.” •A director for a non-profit organization describes how this approach helped him sort out questions to answer. He says “To see within me themes repeating themselves caused me to really focus on what I am about. I found that “catchy” words lost heart of it. Because of process I soon formed language and passion of true meaning of what was deep within me.” As organization continued to align their Mission and Vision Statements with strategic activities and actions, they got results. They increased in size by 50% and many more satellite organizations resulted, all sharing a common mission and continuing to use process to refine and reflect their shared vision for future.

The CEO of a financial services company recently went through e-book exercises to develop their mission and vision statements and he says “our company has benefited greatly since inception of mission statement. Every company, family, couple or individual should have one.

Then why is it that in some organizations these statements do little more than signify a loss commensurate with costs: books purchased, speakers and consultants hired, and seminars held. Well, when expectations are not met, these statements are seen as being a waste of time and money and an organization continues to function as it always has.

Now when I first heard this I thought this basically meant "do stuff". Proactive people to me were people who simply did things rather than sit and watch, they took initiative. So to me this was going to be an easy one, and being first I thought it should be. WRONG!

Proactivity here is about choice. It's about taking initiative to stop - think - choose. The biggest hurdle for most of us is realising we have choice. Covey separates what happens around us from how we react to it. I'll say that again another way, as it is extremely core to chapter and rest of book: Covey separates what happens to us from how we decide to react to it. At first this sounds like a nice concept, but will it work in reality?

Can you believe it, as I try and write this, my son has set two electronic keyboards to continually play random tunes, it is so loud I can hardly think! So what is happening? There is a lot of noise and I am struggling to concentrate. How am I reacting? I could use my power as a parent to tell him to stop it 'daddy is working' or even go over and unplug it. On other hand I could accept he wants to do something with me, talk to him about making a time that works for both of us and ask him to let me finish so we can play together sooner. Maybe he does not realise impact of noise on my concentration. WOW! - would you believe it, he found noise annoying also and has just turned it off himself.

Let's look at this as Covey would. My initial response of "TURN THAT DOWN!!!" is completely reactive. It's second response that Covey would describe as proactive. I took what was happening around me and chose for myself response that best worked for me. Initially I felt I had no choice, it was so loud and I just wanted it to stop, my initial reaction was to stop it using whatever I had - in this case authority of being parent. How much better would have been my second choice?