Creating my family mission statement

Week 3 of simplify your life has kicked off and I hope you have enjoyed reading about mission statements and tips for communicating and involving a reluctant partner.

When I launched the 52 week challenge I said there were many things in my life that I had sorted and could share my experiences. I also said I had some learning to do as well. Mission statements are one area I (like many of you) had avoided for a long time. I knew of mission statements, but had never attempted one before. I have a feeling it is one of those missing puzzle pieces I needed to find. Personally, I am a visual person so having visual reminders concerning my family life and the direction I want to be headed seems like a natural fit.

The process of creating my family mission statement

1. We reviewed values for the adults

I had already completed my core values analysis, but went on to ask my husband to do the same exercise. I was thrilled that he did so without reading mine and loved how they truly reflected him as an individual.

My top 5 values were: authenticity, connection, family, gratitude, and growth.

His full list of words were: family, loyalty, integrity, easy going, dependable, empathy, dream, adventure, learning, self reliance, achievement, tolerance, respect, ingenuity and consideration.

His top 5 values are: family, loyalty, adventure, tolerance and respect

Just as I looked at my words and felt they summed me up I felt those words created an authentic picture of my husband.

2. We held a family meeting

This step excited our kids at first. They are almost 7 and 8 1/2 years old. as with anything they don’t truly understand the excitement turned to boredom at times and frustration at times, but overall the questions led to some great chat time and they genuinely contributed to the process.

3. We answered eight of the prompting questions I included on Monday.

To keep it real for those of you hesitant to include kids I thought I would share some of the kids’ answers.

If people talked about our family how would we want them to describe us?

“Cool, interesting, fun, loving”

Are there things we see other families do or how we behave that we would like to have in our family?

“Fridge with a built in ice machine in the front door” – 6 yo misses the point but adds a little laugh to the discussion

If you could create a perfect day what would it include?

“art” “going places” “celebrations / parties”

What is important to us? What do we value?

6yo: living (meaning being healthy and alive), dreams, family, time (connections, time together) and generosity

8yo: being happy!

So while the 6yo especially mentioned being bored she had a lot to contribute still and it was nice to talk together. We are planning more family meetings from this point forward and have not decided if they will be weekly or monthly, but they will grow and evolve with us this year.

4. Putting together all their input, my husband’s values and mine we came up with the following mission statement that when read aloud everyone agreed was “us”.

We will treat others as we would like to be treated.

We will accept and celebrate differences – within our family and our community.

We will respect ourselves and each other – through our words and our actions.

We will be grateful for everything we have, everything we are and everything we can do.

We will always put family first – we are each other’s most important people, love and support each other, and treat each other well.

We will always be loved no matter what – our home is a safe place where we can always be honest.

We will strive to learn and grow, stay open to new ideas, tastes and experiences.

We will make time everyday to connect, talk, laugh, play and dream.

What next – what do you do with a family mission statement?

So there you have it – not as short enough to memorize, but I have ideas swirling in my head and plan to either create a beautiful visual with these words or have someone else do so for me before the year is out.

I want to see it all the time, I want us to discuss it regularly. I want to use this as the benchmark for our lives. I may seek out knowledge from books, blogs and other sources, but from my own family I now have the only document I really need to refer to for guidance.

 

How are you going with your family or personal mission statements? Does this resonate with you?

 

Find your simple,

Deb

 

Images: Fly free - the image alone captured me, but it is a children’s story about compassion, respect and kindness so seems fitting.

let’s go on an adventure