What is your life mantra?
I’ve been exposed to lots of great mantras over time. But despite all the exposure, nothing triggered me to have my own personal mantra until a few years ago.
- At the Air Force Academy, our mantra was “Discipline, Integrity, Teamwork, Faith.”
- When I entered the Air Force, it was “Service before Self.”
- And in the company I represent now, it is “Changing skin…Changing lives.”
As much as these mantras and slogans inspired me to get through many important stages of life, I wasn’t moved to create my own until about 10 years ago when I started in business.
At that time, I was at a low point in life where I was transitioning from a full-time working girl to a stay at home mom and I wasn’t feeling particularly happy or fulfilled. I needed to make a change and I decided I would reinvent myself as an entrepreneur. Not only would that fill my need to work, but it would also provide the flexibility to continue working with my kids and my Air Force pilot husband’s fast burning career.
It was then that I truly found myself and realized my place to help kick off a movement for military entrepreneurs. And hence, all the mantras through my life came together to create my own personal mantra; LIVE.GIVE.SERVE.GROW.
Now after being in business for the last decade, I am positive that a mantra can help keep you on track to achieve your goals. In essence, it is a set of words that manifest your deepest motivations in life. Author Simon Sinek (one of my favorite authors) calls this your WHY. The mantra can also serve as a filter to help you make more focused decisions about what you will or won’t do in business.
