What’s Your Purpose Statement?

What’s your personal purpose statement?

I’ve worked in the past on developing a purpose statement for my ensembles. Here’s where I landed for the Aces:

To make high-level genre-agnostic music with tenors and basses from Rockford HS and share it with people through performance and recording, such that (A) a kinship is born through the rehearsal process, (B) more young tenors and basses are inspired to make music in the future, and (C) ensemble members leave the year with new musical and vocal skills and knowledge.

This was in the context of exploring the reasons behind gathering, using the framework of Priya Parker’s brilliant book The Art of Gathering. But I think we can examine the purpose statement at a more personal level. Teaching choir “because I love choral music” or even “because I love teaching” isn’t enough. It doesn’t come close to passing Parker’s tests of specific, unique, and disputable. Purpose statements have become an important, even standard, part of organizations’ development – but can we give some weight to purpose statements for individuals?

I fear that without a personal purpose statement, we can veer as educators into a generalist approach that doesn’t really serve the students as well as specificity would. We also risk letting ego or personal preference drive decisions that should really stem from a clear purpose. As an arranger, too, I write better music, at least as I define it, when it comes from a clear purpose.

I’m going to be spending some time next month reflecting on my own personal purpose statement, and will publish it here in August. I urge you to do the same! Let’s compare notes!