Mission and vision play integral roles in the development of you and in the development of some of the biggest brands and companies you love. Every organization has a mission and vision that helps guide and define who and what they are and where they want to go. How can you use this for you?

Mission statements are short one or two sentence sound bites that define you are a whole. They help establish what you are all about.

Vision statements define your future: what is your blue sky, and where do you want to go.

Sure, sounds great and but why does it matter?

Leading CEOs use mission and vision to help refine and streamline how they use their time and how to strategize what to prioritize and make their focus. Mission and vision will help you live and work with purpose and navigate through life’s options with greater ease. Let’s put it to work.

Let’s look at Patagonia. Their vision is to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

Hypothetically, if Patagonia was in the process of expanding it’s business and trying to secure funding and partnerships, looking closely at who it’s working with can make a massive difference on the appearance of the company. If Patagonia was to partner with British Petroleum, for example, it would be hard to argue that the business is trying to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. In fact, such a partnership would be prime targeting for competition brands like North Face, Arc'Teryx, and Columbia.

For Patagonia, taking the brand and vision into the process happens at all steps. From procuring the materials in an environmentally friendly way, to managing the environmental footprint of production facilities, even pledging 10% of sales back to funding environmental groups. A clear mission and vision allows the organization to focus their efforts, prioritizing what’s important to them.