CMV: Extreme Intentionality
Whether professional, personal, or creative, a well-crafted goal needs to be built on a foundation of Intentionality, and those who consistently execute typically operate with a level of Intentionality often overlooked by others. In this context, Intentionality simply means performing a task or tasks with purpose (as opposed to just performing them). Ben Franklin famously asked himself, What good shall I do this day? each morning, and What good have I done today? each evening. While even such a simple and loose demonstration of Intentionality will provide value, you’re going to take a much more robust approach.
The best way to embrace Intentionality is to define and refine your intentions, and in order to do so properly, you need to understand your goals at two different scales—how they relate to larger, overarching, life-spanning values or motivations (see Foundational Wealth), and in a more granular, actionable, goal-specific sense (which I'll cover here). In doing so, you’ll set yourself up for success in ways you may have never imagined possible.
What is a CMV?
Here, you’re going to learn a unique approach that ensures your intentions are well-defined by looking at them from three separate perspectives. I call this CMV.
CMV stands for Credo, Mission, and Vision. These are terms you may have heard associated with businesses or brands, but they’re valuable tools for professional, personal, entrepreneurial, and creative goals, as well.
Here’s a breakdown:
Credo
Beliefs about what’s valuable, important, or desirable
A Latin word that means a set of fundamental beliefs or a guiding principle
Begins with “I believe…”
Example: I believe that individuals in malaria-afflicted countries should have the opportunity to live long, healthy lives.
Mission
Your purpose or calling
Begins with “To…”
Example: To increase malaria treatment availability in afflicted countries
Note that your Mission is an actionable manifestation of your Credo. Everything flows together.
Vision
An image of the Mission accomplished (or being accomplished)
An ideal future state (framed within the scope of your influence)—though not necessarily an end state—which would be possible only if your Mission was successful
Reflects high standards
Creates a visual scene
Worded in the present progressive (“it is”) or present perfect progressive (“it has been”) tense
Example: The cities and towns of historically malaria-afflicted areas are bustling with healthy humans; when doctors encounter a case of malaria, they’re genuinely alarmed and puzzled because it's so rare an occurrence.
You can (and should) develop a CMV for every remotely complex goal or undertaking in your life that you value. The exact same structure can be applied to anything from cutting carbs or managing social anxiety to building a business empire.
A CMV:
Brings everything you do into focus and lets you make progress toward your goal with intentionality
Ensures you have a quickly accessible and simple way to illustrate your intentions, motivations, and purpose to others
Helps inform decisions and risk tolerance
Reminds you what to value/prioritize vs. what to disregard
Sparks insight and provides guidance when you’re unsure about your next step
Keeps you more intimately engaged with your goal and therefore less likely to give up when things become difficult
I’m not suggesting you make a CMV for your life as a whole; instead, you should craft unique CMVs for every individual valuable and complex goal, undertaking, or project.
Examples
To share a personal example, here’s my CMV for being a dad, which is easily one of the most valuable and complex things I’ve ever done. I created this years ago when my first child was born.
Credo: I believe a present, engaged, supportive, and encouraging adult model is critical to the development of wise, confident children.
Mission: To instill in my children a culture of curiosity and a passion for pursuing the things they value
Vision: I meet my children for dinner in 20 years and am reminded that they’ve grown to become individuals I admire and genuinely enjoy being with
Think of how these three statements could inform my decisions, conversations, language, and behaviors.
From my Credo, the phrase “a present and engaged adult model” reminds me to remain truly in the moment and resist the urge to engage with unrelated thoughts or actions when I'm spending time with my children. As an example, the nature of my career can sometimes make work/life separation a challenge (which is something I generally don’t mind, since I enjoy what I do)—but I sometimes need a reminder to put my phone away.
From my Mission, the term “a culture of curiosity” informs how I answer questions—I have the choice of answering my children’s more complex questions dismissively or by showing that I value their curiosity and rewarding them with encouragement and by matching their enthusiasm. When my daughter asked me how a car engine worked at age four, I would have been justified in saying, “Look, this is going to go way over your head, so let’s revisit it in a few years.” Instead, I gave her a detailed yet age-appropriate version of the real answer, and then we spent some time that night building moving engine parts out of Legos. She most likely didn’t follow everything we discussed, but she certainly enjoyed it and grew from the exploration process.
From my Vision, the phrase “individuals I admire” reminds me to instill in my children the values and attributes I see in people I admire—to teach them about integrity and to encourage them to question authority but recognize when someone is looking out for their best interests; to reward humor and encourage their interests so they become worldly, interesting, happy, and open-minded adults.
This CMV is guided by and complies with what I value (to understand what you value, read about Foundational Wealth). I value diversity of experience, and my CMV encourages me to seek out diverse experiences with my children, where I can engage with them in novel ways, furnish them with opportunities to exercise curiosity and passion, and help them cultivate the breadth of experience needed to become worldly and open-minded. I want to consistently help them achieve the things they value by empowering them to seek out whatever it is that they see as valuable, even if it’s drastically different from my own definition.
While Credos, Missions, and Visions are all valuable and should be used to inform almost every aspect of a goal, in many cases, Credos and Visions can be kept close—but Missions should be shared with the widest appropriate audience. This is true in almost any context. For intensely personal goals, the widest appropriate audience may just be you—and that’s perfectly fine—for other goals, though, it may be friends, family, coworkers, and anyone you’ve asked to hold you accountable. For larger goals, the widest appropriate audience may include many more people.
To close with yet another personal example, consider a CMV I crafted for myself in a technology leadership role I had. While I only shared my Credo and Vision with a few of the key leaders who reported to me, I shared my Mission far and wide. It sat at the top of nearly every piece of documentation I created, it was laminated and posted on my office door, and it adorned the back of my computer monitor, so anyone sitting across the desk from me could read it without even having to turn their head. After some time, I began to hear members of the team citing it in conversation or when making critical decisions.
The Mission was: To utilize my experience to develop one of the greatest software engineering teams in the company—a team whose expertise will be admired, whose processes will be emulated, and whose guidance will be sought. Think of how that may have informed my pursuing growth or visibility opportunities for my staff; how that may have informed my willingness to have tough conversations or address underperformance; or how that may have influenced the care I put into developing robust, repeatable processes.
This also reflects the things I value. I wanted to furnish my staff with opportunities to grow and—by encouraging them to adopt new ways of doing things and share their expertise outside their immediate teams—to experience new things and push the boundaries of their comfort zones (my self-focused definition). I also wanted to invest time and energy in understanding my staff members’ individual motivations and help them achieve the things they value (my externally focused definition).
There you have it. Understand what truly drives you (by exploring Foundational Wealth), and use that knowledge as a guide for creating CMVs for anything complex or valuable you pursue.
With a CMV in place, you can consider your goal(s) defined. Next, you can use it to refine your goal by crafting M-SMART Goals.
Worksheets
Get your hands dirty! Check out a comprehensive (and free) worksheet to help you make the most of this specific Foundations of Execution strategy.
CMVs (and Intentionality in general) are just some of the fundamental concepts I explore in my book, Foundations of Execution.
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You’re ambitious. You’re driven. You’re creative, believe in your vision, and know what you’re capable of. But like most, you often find it difficult to make progress toward the things you value.
When it comes to accomplishing personal, professional, entrepreneurial, and creative goals, the world is bombarding you with bullshit guidance — coddling mantras of positivity and motivation devoid of practical action. Bullshit sounds good. Bullshit feels good. But bullshit will fail you in the long run nearly 100% of the time.
No more bullshit.
Let’s change tactics. Foundations of Execution won’t motivate you; it will give you the tools you need to execute despite the lack of motivation that will inevitably befall you. It won’t train you to abstain from excuses; it will give you the tools to strip all power from the excuses that will inevitably bubble to the forefront of your consciousness. It won’t argue the same tired case for self-discipline and convince you to work against your nature; it will show you how to circumvent your nature when it undermines your interests.
As shockingly simple as it may seem, three behaviors tend to separate those who struggle from those who consistently execute on their goals; and by the time you’ve finished reading this book, you’ll have mastered all three. You’ll come away with repeatable habits that address not just how you tackle complex undertakings, but also how you think, behave, and approach problems in all aspects of your life. It’s an irreverent, philosophy-first, whole-self approach to execution that will change you forever.
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