Are your New Year’s resolutions ready? You know goal setting helps you create the life you want. This new year, create some family goals to teach your children the value of self-discipline.

The Basics of Family Goal Setting

Just like your favorite professional sports team, your family needs to work together to be its best. Family goal setting helps each individual give their best effort toward the success of the whole family. It’s important for everyone in the family to be involved with goal setting for many reasons. These goals:

  • Illustrate the defining characteristics of your family.
  • Represent the family’s highest ideal of their collective and individual potential.
  • Give parents a reference point for expected behaviors.

Family goal setting doesn’t need to be a time-consuming task. If your family is new to the process, start with small, short-term goals that you can plan over dinner. Use time spent in the car or a few minutes each morning for progress reports and encouragement. If you keep the lines of communication open constantly, your family could plan the perfect camping trip or coordinate a deep cleaning of your garage without long, formal meetings.

Creating Family Goals

Follow these steps to customize a plan for your family.

  • Have a brainstorming session. Each member should suggest a goal. Respectful discussion and simple majority voting can be useful tools in fine-tuning your target.
  • Write down your goals. Be specific. If your family wants to get healthier, make a goal to lose a certain number of pounds as a group or adhere to a schedule of fitness activity. Set dates.
  • Break your goal into realistic steps. If you want to save money to pay for a trip, how much will you have to save each week? Do you need any equipment, memberships, or tools? Write down how you plan to make your dream a reality.
  • Assign duties. Each member should be responsible for some part of the work. Small children might contribute by picking up after themselves so older family members can concentrate on certain tasks.
  • Make a visual aid. Use a calendar to mark off days and track progress. Different ink colors can make it easy to organize each family member’s activities.

Schedule periodic family meetings to review progress. Acknowledge members who have put in extra effort. Those who are struggling may need a little inspiration during these check-ins.

Like all new things, it’s best to start small with family goal setting. Trying to accomplish too many things at once or trying to make them happen too quickly can spread stress and discontentment. Your goals can be as big or as small as you need and want. Just keep in mind that the purpose is for your family to face a challenge together, and for all members to succeed.

Set goals for your family to help everyone achieve the happiest new year possible.

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