As an introverted success coach, I look for innovative ideas and processes to pass onto my followers. One of my favorite videos is the InfusionSoft Belief Statement video that explains their company’s beliefs, direction and sets the tone of their corporate culture. What an innovative way to express your values and vision to help bring alignment with leaders, employees and clients. These belief statements also form the basis of mission and vision statements.
Mission statements have been around a long time. They usually consist of one sentence that is the essence of why the business exists. It seems that they often get created by ambitious new business leadership that want to bring positive change to a sick and dying business culture. Belief statements are the building blocks of mission statements. These help define the work culture, client interactions and a future vision outlook for the organization. This helps bring alignment of management, employees and clients, to have better ethical guidance.
Now back to a personal level, I believe everyone should have some sort of guiding compass that they can fall back on to help in personal choices and defining themselves. Sometimes we have these values already defined and are already living them, but the most powerful ones are expressed in written format. These written statements can be posted in front of us every day as a reminder of what we stand for and help set our daily direction.
So what would an introverted belief statement look like?
Belief statements should be developed to guide you to help improve yourself and those you work with. Statements that define where you want to be and do are fine too. I think the most important thing is that it can be adjusted and refined year after year or whenever you need to make an adjustment or positive change in your core values.
How do I start?
There is no set format but as you form your statements, you’ll notice patterns and will want to group or combine them. Borrowing statements that align with your values is perfectly fine.
Starting with what you believe is easy and powerful. Here are some of mine:
- I believe that most people are introverted and have big ideas that need to be expressed.
- I believe that these ideas are the future solutions to world problems.
- I believe that people are born with a purpose and finding that purpose is a lifetime adventure.
- I believe that FEAR of FAILURE is the thing that holds us back and overcoming FEAR is a lifetime challenge.
- I believe in the power of synergy where the combined work of 2 people equals the work of three.
- I believe that keeping an open mind will introduce me to new opportunities.
- I believe that being in new places, also introduces me to new opportunities.
- I believe that hard work leads to innovation and more opportunities.
- I believe that business is everyone’s business, stop running from it and harness its power.
- I believe a Side Hustle or Plan B is just as important as your main supporting job,
- I believe that sales are equally important as creativity and manufacturing.
- I believe that introversion is an asset, and can be harnessed and exploited.
- I believe that introverts always have something important to say.
Organize your statements
Organize your statements
Now you can organize them into groups of similar beliefs and concepts, adding, combining and refining. Remember, it should be a continual work in progress.
Power of Introverts
- I believe that people are born with a purpose and finding that purpose is a lifetime adventure.
- I believe that most people have some degree of introversion and they have big ideas that need to be expressed and always have something important to say.
- I believe that these ideas are the future solutions to world problems.
Improvement through new opportunities
- I believe that keeping an open mind and being in new places will introduce me to new opportunities.
- I believe that hard consistent work leads to innovation and more opportunities.
- I believe that introversion is an asset, and can be harnessed and exploited for good.
- I believe that FEAR of FAILURE is the thing that holds introverts back and overcoming FEAR is a lifetime challenge.
- I believe that introverts also are affected by an abundance of impostor syndrome.
Our Future Success
- I believe in the power of synergy where the combined work of 2 people equals the work of three.
- I believe a Side Hustle or Plan B is just as important as your main supporting job,
- I believe that sales are equally important as creativity and manufacturing.
- I believe that harnessing the power of introverts will be important for the growth and stability of future successful organizations.
Publish, live, and refine it
Now that you have refined your core beliefs, publish your document. Print it out, hang in a place you will see it every day. It’s already part of you, but other people need to know what drives and guides your life.
Create a mission and vision statement
Now that you have your belief statements, you now have the basis for your personal mission statement and vision statement. These statements are usually one sentence long that define your core conviction or why you do what you do.
You can learn more from these articles for helping to write a resume:
Kickstart your belief statements
At InfusionSoft…
We Believe in small business.
We Believe small businesses are the backbone of strong economies.
We Believe small businesses are the innovators and the job creators.
And We Believe small businesses deserve a freaking medal.
We Believe far, far too many businesses fail.
And We Believe it doesn’t have to be that way.
We Believe in hard work.
We Believe in grit.
We Believe in tenacity.
And we believe in helping those who help themselves.
We Believe that cynics should be punched in the nose.
The devil doesn’t need another advocate.
We Believe that if they can’t say it to your face, they probably shouldn’t be saying it at all.
We Believe happy-clappy namby-pamby optimism is only useful when united with brutal truth.
But We Believe high fives are perfectly acceptable ways for greeting strangers.
We Believe ego makes you stupid.
We Believe fear makes you stupid.
We Believe stress makes you stupid.
We Believe that a fresh, new round of funding can, and sometimes does, make you stupid.
We Believe that stupid happens to everyone,
But fortunately, it’s not a permanent condition.
We Believe that the past does not define who we are today any more than today defines who we will be tomorrow.
We Believe culture is created when passionate people pursue a worthy purpose.
And We Believe passionate people are willing to do the hard work.
Passionate people constantly innovate
Passionate people own their mistakes and share what they’ve learned.
Passionate people see change and challenges as opportunities for growth.
And therefore, we believe that if you’re uncomfortable with change and uncertainty, this is not your game.
We Believe culture eats strategy for breakfast.
We believe while cereal and soda don’t define our culture, Nerf gun battles are and always will be a perfectly acceptable midday activity at the office.
We Believe those who do will easily beat those who don’t.
Therefore, We Believe those who do follow up with customers will win.
Those who do automate their business will win.
Those who do ask for the sale will win.
We Believe selling is serving if what you’re selling doesn’t suck.
We Believe great products are the most powerful sales rep a business can have.
We Believe clients can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
And that’s why We Believe people who do great marketing, and have a great product, will win every time.
We Believe that while problems sometimes happen, all problems are leadership problems.
And leaders don’t always have all the answers,
And that’s OK.
We Believe leaders should lead from the front.
We Believe leaders should always take responsibility, even when it isn’t their fault.
We Believe the best leaders establish vision, multiply people, and deliver results, all while caring more about their team more than themselves.
And speaking about caring, We Believe there are jerks that just don’t care, but they are massively outnumbered by those who do.
We Care.
We’re a software company who cares more about our customers than just the bits and bytes.
We’re a software company that cares more about small businesses than giant enterprises.
We’re a software company that cares more about changing the world than lining our own pockets.
We’re a software company that cares,
And We Believe that makes all the difference.
-InfusionSoft
Wow, InfusionSoft’s belief statements are pretty impressive and inspiring. It seems like a list of inspiring statement’s and quotes would be a great place to get inspired to write out a few personal goals to help overcome tenacious obstacles that are holding someone back from their goals.
Posting belief statements is good, but it is worthless if they are never reviewed again. It would probably be good to add to the list the activities that inspire you most and people you can turn to if you get in an emotional low. Also, for those who feel that they give up to easily, strategically setting the time when they can make goal changes to a time after they have been really inspired may help with that as well.
Thanks for that great article. It seems like we will always define who we are whether or not we are aware of it, and so taking a proactive approach to it can really give us the leverage we need to develop ourselves in the direction that we want to.
Great insights Christopher. Accountability is absolutely important.