Stephen R. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Eff People pdf

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. Symptoms 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.
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 statement, getting feedback, 
revising it, and using wording from different family members, you get the family talking, 
communicating, on things that really matter deeply. The best mission statements 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.
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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.