Family Mission Statement (s/o thread)

[cherylchoo]

I wanted to start a spinoff thread from a comment in the simplicity in a consumerist society thread:

Originally Posted by pgkcb13 As far as you general question, I think having a family mission statement is an awesome idea that we're going to try. That way when we're feeling conflicted we can read it and remember that our priorities are time together and being out doors and being easy on the environments, etc... not having a bunch of stuff or the newest tech, or whatever.

Totally LOVE this idea. What a great way to keep your acquiring and purging in line, and also a way to teach it more concretely to the kids. I would love to hear anybody's mission statements, or ideas for them, links etc so I can formulate one for our family as well.

[pgkcb13]

I'm pretty sure I first heard about this from reading organized simplicity, but Tsh has some info about it on her blog too

http://simplemom.net/back-to-the-bas...ion-statement/
http://simplemom.net/red-letter-words/

[cherylchoo]

Thanks for that. If you look in the comments on that blog post, there are a lot of links to different examples there. I like the idea of gleaning from those but give it a more minimalist, people-not-things focus to it.

[pgkcb13]

Originally Posted by cherylchoo Thanks for that. If you look in the comments on that blog post, there are a lot of links to different examples there. I like the idea of gleaning from those but give it a more minimalist, people-not-things focus to it.

Maybe I missed something... I actually thought all of those were pretty people focused

Here's another one with questions to help get started:
http://simplemom.net/back-to-the-bas...ion-statement/

[Punkin]

Franklin covey has a mission builder program free online I used for ours years ago...I have to hunt up the link.

[cherylchoo]

Originally Posted by pgkcb13 Maybe I missed something... I actually thought all of those were pretty people focused Here's another one with questions to help get started: http://simplemom.net/back-to-the-bas...ion-statement/

Ooh, thanks, I like that one too. And I didn't mean to imply the examples I read were not people-focused, but most of the issues we discuss in this forum would be addressed in the further development of each bulletin point of their missions statements, if that makes sense. So for example, if one of their points was "Live simply, and make their home a safe emotional and physical shelter for their family", that in and of itself does not specifically address minimalism but when you put together your plan how to achieve that goal it could definitely include many minimalist factors.

I will admit now that I am trying to put ours together, our goals themselves don't specifically address minimalism but like I said earlier do in the executing of them. Somehow in my head I thought they would be more specific to minimalism, but in doing the exercise it is not that simple. But it is still a worthwhile exercise to do, because in fleshing out the goals you can make your guidelines on how to downsize all the "non-essential stuff" in your life.

Originally Posted by Punkin Franklin covey has a mission builder program free online I used for ours years ago...I have to hunt up the link.

You know, when I first read about this that was my first thought, this sounds exactly like all the Franklin Covey stuff that became so popular in the 80s, but instead of focused on the individual, it is focused on the family. I have a e-copy of this, I should read it again. Thanks!

[pgkcb13]

That makes sense

I don't know why, but this type of exercise is really difficult for me... I think I want too much from life, lol. Guess I better work on minimizing THAT! HA!