Hi, I'm Nicholeen Peck and I teach all over the world about parenting, good communication,
and in this video we're talking about how to write a family mission statement.
In this video, we're going to talk about what makes a mission statement so powerful and how
they're used, and then how you can write one that will be successful for your family. I know a lot
about mission statements. I've been a proponent of people writing family mission statements for lots
of years. I also had an international nonprofit as well as the business teaching self-government,
which owns this channel, and I have been instrumental in putting mission statements
in place for those businesses too. The majority of people think of mission statements when they think
of business. So why do businesses use mission statements? Well, it's because they're powerful.
They keep everybody focused on the direction that they're going. If there is not a mission statement
in place, it is very easy for the business to get distracted on too many side projects. So as
a person who teaches self-government and teaches parenting, then that's my main focus. It could be
very easy for me to get sidetracked because there are so many things that feed into family life,
right? People often want to know what types of activities I play with my children and different
field trips that we like to go on, and where I'm happy to share those things. Sometimes I have to
make sure that those things are always going to be very small topics that I will discuss because
my main focus for teaching self-government is helping to free families from the emotional
bondage that's tearing their relationships apart. That's my mission, that's my focus. I want to help
families be able to have freedom and connection and unity so that the entirety of society,
maybe even the world can become more united. If I just talk about recipes, even though
it's interesting to some people, I will not be staying true to my focus. So even though there
are many things I could share, like how I grow my garden or how I can my vegetables, I don't
spend a lot of time talking about those outside of maybe a few social media posts here and there,
just so that people see some of the things that I do in my spare time. So how then does a mission
statement affect a family? So families can get the same focus, benefit from a mission statement that
a business can gain. When a business develops a mission statement, they teach it to all of
the people. People have usually a little piece of paper or something stuck somewhere, maybe on the
front of a binder that has their business mission statement on it so that they can constantly refer
back to the mission statement, and that company only associates with other people that are going
to help them in their mission when it's related to business work. If they suddenly got off into
all of these other political topics that's not germane to their business. In fact, I've noticed
in recent years a very interesting thing that there are some businesses, for instance, Disney,
okay? They have had this family focus mission that was very clear for everybody for a long time,
and it was, we are going to make family friendly family values entertainment. Well,
Disney got bigger, bigger, bigger started bullet pulling in other types of entertainment,
consuming other companies that were producing entertainment. Suddenly they have this broader
entertainment scope and people started to develop a little bit more of a detachment from Disney.
Well, then Disney started making things that were definitely politically and ideologically slanted
in certain directions, and then parents started stepping out and saying, nope, that's not Disney.
That's not who they are. I don't know if I trust their programming anymore. I don't know if I like
what they're doing with their programming. And so things changed for them. In fact, just the other
day, there was a mother who said to me, we don't ever watch Disney. We have started not watching
Disney on purpose because I don't think that any of the stuff that's coming out is half as good as
what it used to be. It's almost as if they've lost their whole vision. That last statement hit me.
It's almost as if they've lost their whole vision. Well, that means that they probably have some
mission statement or did have under Walt Disney some mission statement. Either it changed, so
really they haven't lost their vision, but their vision changed, and the people around them don't
like the adjustment or what has happened is they really aren't being true to that original
mission. That was the whole point of the company to begin with. Now, this video isn't about Disney,
but you see what could happen to a family if the family does the same thing, the family,
if they get hung up on all these other ideas that are going on around them, they could forget who
they are as a group. Think of how many families right now might have people who are in different
faiths or have different ideological views related to religion, way of life issues. So I think
it is vital then that the family recognizes who they are and where they're going so that they
can navigate some of these differences and keep the family intact. So let's talk about
how to make a great family mission statement so that we can keep that family intact. But first,
what have you seen happening that is breaking up families? Leave me a comment below, and if you
have any questions about mission statements as we go along, be sure to leave those below too.
Years ago, we created a family vision for our family, and so I could go into detail about a
family vision. The family vision gives the family that reason why they're going to care about their
relationships. But after we created this picture of who we wanted to become as a family, this why,
this vision, then we realized we needed something that would help us make a concrete plan on how we
were going to get there. So I recognized making a mission statement could be the best way to do the
how. So we created a family mission statement that our family started saying every single day. So
every day we would have prayer and then scripture study and mission statement, and we would do any
other studies that we were going to work on as a family. We hooked that mission statement in with
our core learning time as a family every day, we called it our canon. It was the time of day that
we were going to compare every other time of day too to make sure we were staying our course. So
that family mission statement was something that we memorized. The Peck family mission statement
was created in a car as we were driving to Grandma and Grandpa's house. That's how informal it was.
I knew that I wanted to have a mission statement, but I also knew that we needed to have a certain
amount of time to talk about it. Well, one day, we were driving to grandma and Grandpa's house and
I had a pen and a paper with me, and I thought, this is the time. We've got time just sitting in
the car. We can talk about anything. No music, no distractions, just this time. So I said,
you all know we have this picture, this vision of who we're becoming as a family. Well, I think we
should make a statement of what type of family we want to be in order to get that picture, to create
that reality. So I said, what are some of the words of what type of a family you think that we
ought to be? And they threw out words. We should support each other. We should love each other. We
should be dedicated to each other. So they picked words. I wrote down all of the words. My husband
added words. I added words, and the children added words. Then after I had this list composed,
we arrived at grandma's house. We came home that night. My husband and I sat down with that list
of words, and we sniffed the words. We turned them into a beautiful statement that we could present
to the children that would then be said every day. And after that statement was created, we typed it
up on a special piece of paper that looked like a certificate for the children. And then we said,
this is our family mission statement. Here's a special copy of it for you. We all helped make it,
and now we're going to start saying it every day. And we worked on memorizing it. Now, some people
have shorter mission statements, some have longer mine's a little bit longer. Let me share it with
you. Now, our Peck family mission statement goes like this. We, The Peck family will love, support and
be united with one another. We are dedicated to building an atmosphere of trust, faith,
and learning in our home. We spread love and happiness to others. We know that we are children
of God and endeavor to return to his presence as an eternal family, we have patience and wisdom
in our relationships. Heavenly Father guides and loves each of us so that we can fulfill our life's
missions. So that may seem a little long for some people, but that's what we wanted in our mission
statement and our children, even starting at age two and three years old, learned to memorize that
mission statement and say it. And it has been such a blessing to our family. There have been
many times where children have been fighting and I'll say, Hey, stop you guys. Do you feel that?
Do you remember how just a little while ago we said, we the Peck family will love support and be
united with one another? Does this feel like that? And then the children will stop and say, oh, no,
it doesn't feel like that. So then we go on with a correction and we talk things out the right way.
They see a reason because it doesn't match who they are. A mission statement gives identity to
the family. It's a very powerful statement that keeps everybody united and on the same page. So
now you can start writing a mission statement for your family. Just make a list of words and then
create a statement. Then work on memorizing. It could take a couple of weeks, it can be short or
it can be long. Some people even develop family mottos. They'll have a mission statement and
a short motto, something that says like the Peck family sticks together. Or, in our family, we say
our family prayer. Every night we hook our hands together and we do a cheer. We say, happy families
are forever and that's our little motto. We want to be a happy family forever. And if we can stay
happy, we know that we'll be able to stay together forever. That is our motto. You can make just a
motto, call it your mission statement, or you can have a deeper little bit more extensive mission
statement and a motto too, or just a mission statement. You choose but now it doesn't have to
be that hard to have a family mission statement. There are so many more things that I can teach you
that will help your family learn. Self-government, I highly recommend that. If you want to learn the
skills and principles of self-government that you go to my next video, which is the not so
known secret for parenting success, click on the link to that video now. I'll see you there.