My own guiding star has been harder to put into good words. It wanders this way into a forest of giant sunflowers of abstraction then that way into into a meadow of tiny purple bellflowers of specificity. A few concepts remained central: wisdom, long-term survival of the species, sharing/spreading. Sometimes the concepts of home or income would appear.
One of the problems was teasing out the difference between my mission and the pieces I knew I needed to have in place to live and thus make progress on it.
It was after reading one of Steven Barnes' blog posts (and I highly recommend you look at his work, here) that I suddenly integrated the pieces in a strong and connected way. I've had this on the wall for some weeks now, and it has remained inspiring and true to me. It takes more than one sentence. The headings place everything in its proper plane. Have a look at this, my mission document:
Purpose
To help the human game run as long as possible
Foundation
To take care of myself so I can act
First Circle of Concern
To run my household in a way that nourishes the people in it and contributes
to our health, wealth,
and the environmental sustainability of the world at large
Second Circle of Concern
Sharing knowledge and wisdom so that others contribute
to sustaining the human game, too
Underlayment and Energy Source
Having enough income to power all these goals
That does it. That's where I want to go and what I need to get there. I've been feeling a lot more focused and clear since I sorted this out.