How to Create a Family Purpose Statement
Yesterday, when we talked about decision fatigue, I said one of the ways to combat decision fatigue was to create a family purpose statement. We are going to talk about that today. What is a family purpose statement? How do you create one? And how will that actually help remove some of the stress and overwhelm from your life so you can continue your journey towards living a life you love? We will get to it all!
Family Purpose Statement: What is it?
A family purpose statement is a statement that shares your family’s purpose, goals, and values. Is that too abstract? When I first read about creating a family purpose statement, I felt that way. What the heck were my family’s goals? I had no idea. It seemed really complicated to set up something that would identify our family as a whole.
But, it doesn’t have to be. Once you evaluate the questions that I have for you (grab your free questions here), it will become clearer.
Writing a family purpose statement (or even a personal one), helps you know more about yourself, what makes you tick, and what makes your family unique. What does your family represent? Who do you want to be as a family? As individuals? It is broad enough to continue to apply year after year, but specific enough to help you make quick decisions.
Get your Free Family purpose statement questions by filling out the form below!
Why should you have one?
Because we are talking about living a life you love, and how decision fatigue is a challenge that we have to overcome as we are moving in the right direction, creating a family purpose statement gives you one more tool in your pocket. You are able to use your family purpose statement to easily and quickly make decisions.
Do you struggle with saying no? Do you say yes out of obligation, even though you know that you are not well suited to that task/group/activity? Are you trying to keep up with the Joneses, but then becoming overwhelmed due to activities and events that you don’t feel fully engaged with? Do you put your kids in activities because you want them to be recognized a certain way, even if they never showed the desire for that activity in the first place?
My Family’s Purpose Statement
Before we go much further, I wanted to share our family’s purpose statement. I remember first writing this back in February of 2012. It was a challenge. I had no idea where to start. My oldest two were very young at that point, 3 & 1, and Lucy hadn’t even been born yet. I was going through a time of struggle, and trying to make sense of the decisions we had to make as a family, and why I felt so overwhelmed. Of course, some of that overwhelm came from being a mom who had no idea what she was doing in the beginning.
It was such an abstract process, and not something I had done before, so I didn’t quite know how to start. Reading examples from others is what helped me finally figure out how to word what we needed to say. So here is ours:
Put God First. Live simply. Be good stewards of God’s creation and the time we are given. Promote peace in our home. Encourage creativity and learning. Always show our love for one another.
Does this mean you should copy what we have? No, but it will give you an idea of how to write something like this. You want it to be broad, but specific enough to show how you and your family how to use it in practical situations.
Questions as you consider
Questions are a great way to go about finding the information you need to write a statement like this. When you take into account your family, and not just yourself, it can be a bit more challenging. They have to be somewhat involved in the process. Now, obviously, if you have small children, they won’t be as involved, but they will still be considered as you are fleshing out ideas.
You can grab this free printable by entering your email below. It will take you to a PDF you can download and print out as you consider what your family’s purpose statement should be like. I would encourage you to sit down with your significant other, and your kids too, and talk about some of these questions together.
The questions are meant to help guide you. But, if you are struggling to answer a question, skip it and come back to it later. It takes a lot of deep thought to come up with what will work for you. It took me a couple of weeks of really considering before I could get words down on paper. Mine started with a lot of lists, and then was narrowed down to what was most important to us as a family. It might be helpful for you to bring out your list of what is most important from earlier this month.
If your kids are older, it isn’t too late to start though! Living a life you love is not an overnight thing. It is something you work at, and continue to work at.
The Bottom Line
I believe writing this purpose statement when my kids were young gave me an invaluable tool. This allowed me to start saying yes to the right things for my family, and no to the things that would not be a good fit into what we wanted out of our life.
Does it mean that you will always make the right decisions? That you will never have those feelings of overwhelm? Or going through seasons where everything is chaotic? Unfortunately, no, a family purpose statement, no matter how amazing it is, will not cure these feelings. But, it is a tool that will help you move forward as you are making new decisions and designing a life that you love.
Tomorrow we will chat more about the specific ways our family purpose statement has been used, to give you an idea how to use yours. But, for now, go through those questions. Grab the notebook that you started at the beginning of the month, and let’s start to deep dive on what makes our families tick.
Share your statement in the comments! Or if you need help, use my contact form to get in touch with me!
