January 2016 Family
Challenge
January is the perfect time for
Habit #2, Begin With The End In Mind!!
This habit is where we literally see what it is we want to become, do,
learn and gain. Sometimes the end is
something short term, sometimes the end we see is a long way off. Dr. Covey challenges us to look forward to
our 80th birthday party and imagine what the people attending would
say about us. What is it that you would
want your family, friends and loved ones to say about the life that you have
lived? This is the first step in making
your personal mission statement. This is
the first family challenge of January, to make a family mission statement. The process is simple, sit down as a family
and decide what you would like to be known for, what you want your character to
be. Remember that character is different
than reputation. Character is who you
really are, while reputation is how people see you. Character is also completely in your own
control, while reputation can be influenced by you. It is really controlled by
other people’s perspective. A good
illustration of this is that of a prominent leader in a small town who was seen
by someone who didn’t know him very well entering a very bad area late at night
under what was perceived to be suspicious circumstances. The person who saw this told quite a few
people about it and they jumped to conclusions, such as him being a drug
dealer, or that he must be buying drugs etc.
It turns out that this leader was responding to an urgent call from a
family member who was struggling with an addiction and needed help. The leader had unselfishly went to find his
loved one and offer help, bring them to his house and find professional help
for them. His character remained intact,
even when his reputation may have suffered because of the perception of
another.
Your
mission statement could be very short, Dr. Covey claims that his was only 3
words. Make it something that you and
your family can look to every day and strive for. If you need some examples there are tons
online if you Google “family mission statement examples” and look at the
images. Once you come up with your
family mission statement, I challenge you to hang it up in a prominent place in
your home and review it often with your children to keep if fresh and something
that they think about.
The 2nd
challenge option is to create some short term and long term goals for each
member of the family. Along with the sheet of paper is a puzzle that you can cut out and mix up all of the
pieces (Click on the link below to open & print out the puzzle with the challenge.). Once you have cut out all of the
pieces, have your children try and guess what the completed puzzle is without
seeing the original. Puzzles are also
very hard to put together unless we actually know what it is supposed to look
like when it is finished. This relates
directly to life and Habit #2 in that if we know what we want to accomplish
then we have a much greater chance of realizing that goal. After putting the puzzle together discuss
what goals each family member could make and how you can help make those goals
happen.
Once
you have finished either of the activities please fill out the form (Click on the link below to open & print out the challenge that has the form to fill out.) and
turn it in to the office. This will
enter you into our drawing for a Kindle Fire or a family board game. Remember that if you do both challenges, you
get 2 tickets in the drawing!! The forms are due by Friday January 29th.
Good luck with this challenge and I would love to hear from you about your
experiences with each of the habits.
Mr. Chournos
Click HERE to open and print out the challenge.