Where have all the missions gone?
When last I blogged (ca 2015), I was pondering all things old that were happening, whilst plowing through what would end up being 3 more years of mission-driven work. And then……I retired- sorta-kinda. I spent a boatload of time planning when to exit the nonprofit agency that I had founded in 1992, and built over 26 years and of which I was immensely proud. I didn’t want a schmalzy exit, and I sure didn’t get one. Suffice it to say, the board of directors hired someone I recommended against. It didn’t go well.
Now, almost 4 years later, I’ve been thinking a lot about missions. I guess I came from a generation where “being on a mission” was a good thing. It was the thing that drove me to start a new organization and to drive it in directions that fulfilled that mission. It was the thing that woke me up day in and day out, and the thing that consumed me to the exclusion of virtually everything else. Silly me. I assumed that what I had built would be carried on in roughly that same tradition. Oh, contraire. My successor (who only lasted a year before he was fired) set things on a downward path, and there isn’t much left of what I built. I have been pretty much kicked to the curb in the process. [What did you expect, a statue?]
[No, not sure what I did expect] But never fear, I had other missions to pursue. One, with a statewide organization I had founded in 1996, had promise. Until 2020, when I was moved to being the “immediate past president”. I’ll let you figure out the rest of that story (hint – another curb is involved). Ah, but as George S. Patton said, “all glory is fleeting”. It was never about the glory. Always about the mission.
But hey, I still had at least one other mission underway, and still do. But it seems even that mission may be in jeopardy (no curbs yet, but warning signs are flashing).
SO WHAT’S MY POINT: Shouldn’t we all have such missions that motivate us, that inspire us, that keep us honest, and forthright, and true to the principles we’ve signed on to through our lives? How forceful should we be in pursuing these missions? In these days of broken politics, it seems that words like collaboration, partnership–dare I say bipartisanship–are empty phrases. Mission has become marketing. Slogans. Social media platforms. Apps and platforms that pump out propaganda, take surveys, and spit back useless data.
And for those of us “over the hill”, now lacking organizational hutzpah, how exactly do we stay involved in our various missions? Some go the route of becoming “consultants” and “subject matter experts”. Some gleefully fade out, with an occasional opportunity to pontificate.
Me? I mourn the loss of mission. I suffer from “metaphorical grief”. Yes, there is such a thing. And as I’m finding out, it can be just as real, just as devastating as the kind that comes from other forms of loss (think pets, parents, etc). More on this in a subsequent post, along with what I hope will be suggestions on how to cope.