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Episode #76
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One of the key ways to stay motivated, resilient and focused on the end goal (and how you want to get there) while making a transformation in your life is to create your own personal manifesto.
A personal manifesto is your declaration of your core values and beliefs, what you stand for, and how you intend to live your life. What you want in life and how you intend to make it happen. It’s your statement of your principles and your call to action.
It can also be your act of rebellion, the statement that you no longer will follow the rules. You are making your own rules to follow now. It can be whatever you want it to be as long as it inspires action and self-belief.
WHY HAVE A PERSONAL MANIFESTO?
Like the manifestos drawn up by organisations, your personal manifesto helps someone believe in what you stand for. And that someone is YOU! Because the first person you need to convince to believe in you and back you… is you! Yes, you may know why you want to make a change, you have set out your goals and you know what you want to do and how you want to do it. You may also have explored your beliefs and values as you make your decision about what’s next in your life, but there is something powerful about putting them all together in one place.
Making and writing down a declaration of intent and your commitment to your new direction. It cuts through all the noise, all the things running through your head and puts the most important things in focus.
The word manifesto traces its roots to the Latin “manifestus” and “manifestum,” both of which mean “obvious” or “clear”. Over time, the Latin morphed into “manifesto” (“to make public”).
So a manifesto is a public declaration of intent laid out in a clear and concise way. How public you make it is up to you. You can tell everyone and share it with your family and friends to help them understand what it is you want to do and why it’s so important to you. You can also use it as the base for your personal brand as a freelancer or if you are an entrepreneur your company brand.
Or you can just keep it to yourself. It can be just as powerful as a tool just for you to remind you of everything you want to achieve and why it’s meaningful to you so you can stay on track.
HOW TO WRITE YOUR PERSONAL MANIFESTO
Your manifesto needs to feature a call to action rather than just a set of beliefs. As its creator, you want to persuade your audience to make changes or keep motivated because of your words, even if it’s just you that you want to convince.
You can keep it focussed on just one topic like your working life or you can mix in all parts of your life, declaring your approach in relation to health, relationships, and social life as well. Or anything else you want to change or make sure you stay on track with.
This is your manifesto so feel free to write it however you want but here are some pointers to help you create it:
Keep it clear and concise
This is the most important thing to remember. You should be able to read it regularly without too much effort. So no more than one side of A4 if possible, ideally half that amount.
Sometimes it’s hard to get all you want to say in a few lines, but don’t let that hold you back from starting. When you begin just write as much as you want. Then go back and edit it back to something more concise, punchy and easy to read. Remember you can use bullet points or disjointed sentences if you want to.
Find Format You Like
The format can be anything you want but if you are stuck on how to structure it, you can use the “Who, what, how, why, when, where” approach:
- Who are you? What are your principles, your values? What do you care about most?
- What do you want to achieve in life? What are your big goals
- How do you plan to achieve your goals? This is not a detailed plan but an overall approach to how will you live your life to make sure your dreams happen. What are you willing to do, what sacrifices are you willing to make and how you can enjoy yourself along the way?
- Why achieving your goals and living this way is so important to you. These are all the reasons why you have decided to make this change or changes in your life. What is pushing you away from the life you have and what is pulling you towards your new life?
- Where you want to be as you make this change. Will you be staying in the same house, area or country? Where is your happy place? Where can you see yourself as you build a business you love or promote your freelance services, or where
- When will you aim to have reached your goals? When will you know if your life is aligned with the statements in your manifesto?
Use decisive and empowering language
Use strong language. It has to have certainty and strength. There should be no maybe’s, potentially’s, if’s or but’s in this statement. They should start with words like “ I can, I will, I have, I want”. For example:
I remember life is a gift, and will always make the most of every second
I believe in fairness and equality for all and commit to honouring that in my work and life
I always communicate with honesty and integrity
I live my life with openness, optimism and positivity
I make room for fun and laughter in my life
I pursue excellence in everything I do
I will launch a business that will bring happiness, fulfilment and joy to me and my family
Make all your statements positive and uplifting. In this manifesto anything is possible and doubt is not allowed!
Add A Commitment Statement
It is good to distil your manifesto into one commitment statement that you can put at the beginning or end. It acts as a good landing place at the start or equally, it can pull everything together at the end. It also means if you are short on time you can always read just that one statement as a reminder of your key points.
READ YOUR MANIFESTO REGULARLY
There is no point in writing a personal manifesto to just forget it. Make sure you find time in your week to read it on a regular basis. Maybe it's something you read on a Monday morning or you read it every day before or after journalling. Or you just have it hand to read whenever you need it. Remind yourself of it so you don't go off course.
Often the failures of political parties are when they go back on or forget their manifesto promises. That can also be the problem when you don’t make progress or you give up on your manifesto. You have let yourself down. You have gone against your promise to yourself. You have allowed yourself to be swayed or convinced to move in a different direction and that can lead to dissatisfaction that you have not achieved what you set out to achieve.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t be flexible and make changes to your plans. But your manifesto really should not change because it’s at your core. It’s what you really want, it is your north star. Certainly, until you have fulfilled the life you have stated that you are aiming for. Then you may adapt your manifesto for the next stage of your life you are working through.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS…
When transforming anything in your life you have to be really clear with yourself about what you are aiming for so you can keep on course when things get messy. You also need to be clear on what you really want to achieve to convince others of what you want to do and help them to support you.
A manifesto brings clarity, focus and the strength of your convictions. It lays down the key things you want to achieve and how you want to achieve them and states positively that you can and will make it happen. It is another tool in your toolbox to make sure you don’t drift off course, water down what you are aiming for or worst of all give up altogether.
