How do you know what you stand for?

I’m someone that likes to think of himself as pretty driven and goal oriented. I think this is why it’s bothered me so much that lately I’ve been floundering without any great direction. Some of it is probably the “Quarterlife Crisis” but it could also be that I’ve been getting lazy.

I firmly believe in having various goals set for various timelines and at one time I kept a wiki page that listed my goals for the next month, three months, six months and year. I find that these days even if I tried to do that I’d be stuck. I have no idea what I want for the future anymore.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Whenever you read about personal branding or goal setting at some point the concept of a “Personal Mission Statement” comes up. That’s where you write about what you stand for, what matters to you and where you are going. The problem is I’m not really sure what I stand for. I wouldn’t want it to sound like some generic buzzword taco salad. I’m pretty sure integrity is a loaded word.

Do I want to be the best PHP developer in the world? Not really, I think I’m good enough. Do I want to learn new things? Sure, I’ve thought about learning more about business, marketing, data mining and I’d like to get back into drawing. Do any of these things represent my personal brand? I don’t know, maybe?

How do you know what you stand for? How to you pick goals?