You've Got to Stand for Something

Growing up I loved this song and it's empowering words by Aaron Tippin "You've Got to Stand for Something or You'll Fall for Anything".




Let me give you a little backstory before I begin: I love social media and I avoid getting into debates. I actually have a strong opinion on everything from infant carseats to politics, but I don't feel social media is a good place for me to get into conversations about anything controversial. Social media is my happy place. Without it, I can say I would be lonely since I spend most days on the farm, behind my computer, or caring for babies. That said, I've seen a lot on social media when it comes to politics, the recent Presidential Election, President Obama's farewell, and just yesterday, the Women's March. This post isn't about any particular position on these happenings. This is just a quick explanation of how these happenings prompted me to do something fabulous for myself!

There's plenty of speculation about political positions, ulterior motives, and questions about what people stand for. I like to be informed. I like my children to be informed.

In my quest for information, I came across a great website for at least one of the aforementioned Women's March on Washington was incredibly well thought out and the Mission, Vision, and Organization was well done. While reading through the information I could only think of the individual women behind these well written statements. It reminded me of the importance of my own mission and vision in life. I wrote them years ago and my intent was to let them guide me through life to help me stay on course.

Unfortunately, life got busy and I forgot about them a few years in. I've decided I need to get back on track and the first step is to revisit my own purposeful statements of Mission and Vision. Of course, I'm a share-ee type person, so I recommend you revisit your own, or create your very own life statements. Don't worry, I'm not going to stop at that simple recommendation.

There are some great websites to help you build your very own Mission statement for yourself, your team, or your family. When I wrote my initial statements, I used the Franklin Covey website and if you are starting from scratch, you can head there for all the help you'll need.


Since many of you have writing skills of your own, you'll be able to build some amazing statements to help guide you through 2017 and beyond. The questions are:

Where will you keep your Mission Statement?

Who will you share your Mission Statement with?

How often will you revision your Mission Statement?

How will you use your Mission Statement to keep your writing on course?

Who will be your Mission Statement accountability partner?

Those are all very personal questions you'll have to navigate on your own. Feel free to share if you'd like, but I do have a few questions I'd like you to answer in the comments of this post:

If you have a Mission or Vision Statement in place, what prompted you to write it? How do you use it? How could you use it better?

If you don't have a Mission or Vision Statement, why not? What's holding you back?

If you are moving forward with creating a Mission or Vision Statement after reading this article, may I ask what it was that spoke to you personally? 

What is your intention with your completed statement?

Thanks as always for spending a few moments with me today! You are absolutely wonderful! As you build your statements, go ahead and belt out a few verses with Aaron Tippin because well, you know...You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything! (I still tend to fall for silly jokes, but I also stand for a lot of things too! Carry on!)

Hugs,
~Crystal

Crystal is a church musician and secretary, babywearing cloth diapering mama (aka crunchy mama), business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin with her husband, four young children (Carmen 9, Andre 8, Breccan 3, and Delphine 1), two dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff at: http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/

When she's not doing that, she's baking bread and cookies for her friends and neighbors. She says "the coffee is always hot and you're always welcome here!"