So I picked up Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer at WFC. I have two full shelves of Stuff That Must Be Read, but my friend Adam convinced me that it needed to come first. I read it. A lot of it is information that will be useful in the future, but a couple of things were Immediately Applicable. One of them is the Mission Statement.

I’ve always thought of Mission Statements as a strange corporate by-product of the ’90s, and not to be taken seriously. I’ve seen mission statements that didn’t at all match the way companies actually behaved, and I’ve seen some very New-Agey feel-good personal mission statements that were very hard to not laugh aloud at. So writing one for myself was, to say the least, a [redacted*] stretch.

But something about the way Jeff put it made it make sense. It seems to be a basic guiding principle, and I can get behind that. So I wrote one.

Adam and I have talked a bit about Accountability (a subject he will be expanding on shortly, so go add his blog to your RSS feed.) It’s the beginning of a new year, and in the spirit of Accountability I thought I’d post it here.

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Mission Statement
Christie Yant
December 2009

• To become a respected and well-regarded member of the SFF community through my service, my blog, and my art.
• To use what good-will I may receive to increase others’ happiness and satisfaction, and benefit the community and other writers.

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So, there is it. It’s kind of embarrassing, hanging that out there, like I’m taking myself too seriously. I don’t like the ego reflected in the first part. Be that as it may, it could be worse, and it is a set of principles I hope will guide my decisions and commitments for the coming year.

* Sigh. I really need to clean up my language. Working on it.