Start the Year Off Right

Create a Family Mission Statement

Just as with running a successful business, it also helps family members to focus on common goals and values. A family mission statement can help clarify what you hope to achieve as a family and help make your home a more cohesive unit. A mission statement can help keep you centered on what is important, make better use of your resources and learn to say no to things that don’t support your goals.

When creating a mission statement, it is important to involve every family member rather than just announcing it. If kids take part in forming the statement, they are more likely to support it. Parents should guide the conversation but include kids’ input whenever possible. It’s also important to value everyone’s thoughts, even if you don’t share or agree with them.

The dinner table is a great place to discuss your statement. It can take several discussions to touch on everything you want to include. Don’t rush it. Your statement will evolve over time until you find that you are left with something that concisely represents your family unit.

Questions for dialogue include:

• How money should be saved and spent
• Goals for education, career and using special talents
• How the family will help others and themselves
• Best use of the family’s time

A Sample Family Mission Statement

from the “Personal Leadership Application Workbook” for Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

The mission of our family is…
to create a place of order, truth, love, happiness and relaxation; and…
to provide opportunities for each person to become
responsibly independent and effectively interdependent,…
in order to achieve worthwhile purposes.
Our Family Mission
To love each other…
To help each other…
To believe in each other…
To wisely use our time, talents, and resources to bless others…
To worship together…
Forever.

Now that you’ve formed your statement, the next step is to keep it in a place where it will be seen often. Don’t just write it and forget it—to truly put it into practice, your statement needs to be in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Post it on the fridge, a bulletin board or wherever it will be seen on a daily basis.

Resource: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey

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Other articles from this issue:

• Create a Family Mission Statement
• Schedule Important Things First
• Organize
• Purge
• Maintain
• Determine Your Financial Goals
• Re-evaluate Expenses
• Revisit the Family Budget
• Simplify
• Make Financial Records and Information Easily Accessible
• Savings on the Road