Personal Manifesto

As promised from my last blogpost...
What is a manifesto?

A manifesto is a public declaration of intentions. You may have just been turned off with the word “public” and feel the desire to shy away from reading any further. hBefore you leave, though, try to look at it this way – public simply means, written and visible. 

If you happen to share it with anyone else, well then that’s your prerogative. A manifesto is a very good way to get the concepts of where you’ve come from and where you intend to go out in front of you. 

In doing so, you’ve just taken something undefined and made it tangible, in order to cultivate an incredible tool to plot out your future intentions – to make the future less uncertain, and instead more purposeful. 

Manifestos can be professional, business or personal declarations of purpose. I believe that a personal manifesto is an incredibly powerful tool to rewrite your present, your future and to cultivate a stronger better you.

In order to create your manifesto you need a specific topic. I really like using Jeff Goins’, The Writer’s Manifesto as a good example. This is completely focused on how to write unfettered and a way to stop being your own stumbling block. However, here are few more famous manifestos that you may have heard of:

Ø  US Declaration of Independence

Ø  Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech

Ø  The Ten Commandments

Now how do you write a manifesto?

I really like how clear and concise Geoff McDonald has outlined the tools for this activity. I’ll make a quick summary here:

Ø  Intent: What do you intend to achieve in writing your manifesto? What’s the end goal?

Ø  Declaration: Be straight up and bold, say it how it is.

Ø  Public: You can take this to any level you want to. Share with yourself by making it visible to you daily; share with your spouse, partner, family; this could be a business effort. However public you make this is up to you, however it needs to be visible. Why? Accountability.

Ø  3 Rules 

1)    Outline what you intend to achieve.

2)    Create or enhance a better future.

3)    Make public.

To Restate and To Keep In Mind

• Have a specific manifesto topic in mind.
• Stay focused.
• Be real. Your manifesto is as powerful as you are honest.
• Manifestos can evolve as you do.
• Keep your ethics and your standards in mind always.
• Be willing to articulate what has colored your perspective(s), without pointing blame.
• It is what it is; you must know this in order to move beyond who you currently are.