A few years ago my wife and I had a conversation about a family motto that was inspired by the book How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen. In the book Clayton shares a motto they had as a family to build and strengthen their family culture – Christensens are kind. Simple and easy to remember.
The motto we have for the Nicholls family is:
Nicholls Climb Mountains
Our family loves to hike and hiking is a form of climbing mountains. It gives us joy to be out in nature and experience the beauties of this earth. It is renewing for each member of our family, grounds us, and brings us closer together.
We all have metaphorical mountains in our lives. Climb Mountains is a reminder to each of us that we will encounter hard things in our lives, and we must persist when life gets tough.
In ancient scripture we read of prophets that climb mountains to speak with God. The mountain is a sacred and symbolic place to commune with God. It requires sacrifice, dedication, and desire to get to the top. So, Climb Mountains is also symbolic of our family doing those things that need to be done to commune with God and establish a relationship with Him.
Have you created a family or personal motto?
Set aside time this week to start. It can take time and may take several iterations to get it right but is worth it. I will tell you, when I hear my kids say “Nicholls Climb Mountains” when we are hiking or doing something hard it fills my heart.
And yes, I am a nerd for designing a logo to go along with our family motto.
