The first thing I said to Lewis Howes when we met in Melbourne on Monday was “I’m an Olympian.”
I said it because I wanted to inspire him. At 43, his dream is to make the Olympics with the USA handball team. He has already lived one athletic career, had it end through injury, built something entirely new, and now he is going back to the arena anyway. I know that arena. I raced there in Sydney in 2000, and I know what it asks of you.
But here is the truth about that day. I walked in hoping to offer him something, and I walked out having received far more than I gave.
What fear does to us
Before he said a single word on stage, Lewis danced. That was his opening. No slides, no speech. Just play.
Then he explained why. When fear or uncertainty shows up, we pull away from our heart. And the first thing we lose is play. We contract, we grip harder, we get serious. Play needs openness and trust, and fear shuts both down.
I felt that one land in my chest, because fear is exactly what stopped me writing a personal mission statement for years. Not the fear you might expect from someone who raced down mountains for a living. The quieter kind. The fear of backing myself. The fear of spending money on my own growth. The fear of saying what I really want out loud, in case saying it makes the falling short more visible.
That day I made a decision that scared me. I invested in myself and my business in a way I never have before. I felt sick about it. I barely slept that night.
And here is what nobody tells you about fear. The clarity I had been waiting for did not come before the decision. It came because of it. The moment I stepped into the fear instead of circling it, something shifted. The next morning I stood in front of my mirror and wrote my mission on the glass, and the words were simply there, as though they had been waiting for me to prove I was serious.
Writing it down
My mission is to help improve the health of millions of people’s lives worldwide.
Reading it back still gives me a jolt. It is a big mission for a coach working from the foothills of the Dandenongs. But hearing Lewis share his own personal mission statement, to serve 100 million lives weekly, without apology, showed me something important. The size of the mission is not arrogance. It is clarity about who you are here to serve, and it pulls you forward on the days when fear wants to drive.
I posted it publicly, which took another deep breath. And then something I did not expect happened. Lewis replied. He told me that speaking your dream out loud is where it begins, to keep writing it on the mirror, to keep believing it, and to keep taking action every single day.
Keep taking action every single day. That is the part I am holding onto.
Where the mission lives
This mission is not new. It has been underneath everything I have done since I stopped racing, through every personal training session, every coaching conversation, every client who arrived knowing exactly what they should be doing and unable to work out why they were not doing it.
What is new is saying it plainly. And building the vehicle for it.
That vehicle is Oasis, my online wellness community for people who have lost their direction and routine with their health and wellbeing. Daily content, a seasonal rhythm, and a community of people walking the same path. It exists so that returning to yourself does not have to be something you do alone.
Writing your own personal mission statement
A personal mission statement does not happen in a workbook. In my experience it happens the moment you stop softening what you want and say it plainly. And if you are waiting to feel clear before you act, I would gently offer you this. The clarity comes after the step, not before it. So here is my question for you, and I mean it as a genuine invitation rather than a throwaway line.
What would you write on your mirror?
Not the sensible goal. Not the one you have already softened so nobody can hold you to it. The real one. The one that makes you feel slightly sick and completely alive at the same time.
Fear can come along for the ride. It just does not get to drive anymore.
If your mission has anything to do with returning to your health, your routine and yourself, I would love to walk that path with you. You can learn more about Oasis at oasis.annabaylis.com.au, and the door is open with a 7 day free trial.
Anna
