The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

FAMILY MISSION STATEMENTS
Because Habit 2 is based on principle, it has broad application. In addition
to individuals, families, service groups, and organizations of all kinds
become significantly more effective as they begin with the end in mind.
Many families are managed on the basis of crises, moods, quick fixes, and
instant gratification—not on sound principles. Symp toms surface whenever
stress and pressure mount: people become cynical, critical, or silent or they
start yelling and overreacting. Children who observe these kinds of
behavior grow up thinking the only way to solve problems is flight or fight.
The core of any family is what is changeless, what is always going to be
there—shared vision and values. By writing a family mission statement,
you give expression to its true foundation.
This mission statement becomes its constitution, the standard, the
criterion for evaluation and decision making. It gives continuity and unity
to the family as well as direction. When individual values are harmonized
with those of the family, members work together for common purposes that
are deeply felt.

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Again, the process is as important as the product. The very process of
writing and refining a mission statement becomes a key way to improve the
family. Working together to create a mission statement builds the PC
capacity to live it.
By getting input from every family member, drafting a state ment, getting
feedback, revising it, and using wording from different family members,
you get the family talking, communicat ing, on things that really matter
deeply. The best mission state ments are the result of family members
coming together in a spirit of mutual respect, expressing their different
views, and working together to create something greater than any one
individual could do alone. Periodic review to expand perspective, shift
emphasis or direction, amend or give new meaning to time-worn phrases
can keep the family united in common values and purposes.
The mission statement becomes the framework for thinking, for
governing the family. When the problems and crises come, the constitution
is there to remind family members of the things that matter most and to
provide direction for problem solving and decision making based on correct
principles.
In our home, we put our mission statement up on a wall in the family
room so that we can look at it and monitor ourselves daily.
When we read the phrases about the sounds of love in our home, order,
responsible independence, cooperation, helpfulness, meeting needs,
developing talents, showing interest in each other’s talents, and giving
service to others it gives us some criteria to know how we’re doing in the
things that matter most to us as a family.
When we plan our family goals and activities, we say, “In light of these
principles, what are the goals we’re going to work on? What are our action
plans to accomplish our goals and actualize these values?”
We review the statement frequently and rework goals and jobs twice a
year, in September and June—the beginning of school and the end of school
—to reflect the situation as it is, to improve it, to strengthen it. It renews us,
it recommits us to what we believe in, what we stand for.