Jan 3
3 Tips to Guarantee MORE Family Fun in 2019
New Year’s Eve resolutions get a bad rap with statistics showing 80% of people give up on their goals by February and only 8% achieve their goal by year’s end. How could this happen with all those good intentions on December 31st?
There are many reasons; in the case of families it’s often because parents focus goals on “tasks” they have been putting off. For example, “We will start a garden (task) because we’ve been talking about it for a couple of years”; or “We will save more money (task) because the kids are in middle school and college is coming fast.” That’s no fun! No wonder adults don’t stick to family resolutions and kids don’t ask about them.
It’s time for a fresh look at family goal setting. There are three different ways to think about what you want to achieve as a family in the year ahead:
- Short-term resolutions (time-frame 1 month to 1 year) are based on what you MUST achieve (instead of things you “should” do or “want” to do),
- Short-term goals (time-frame 1 month – 1 year) are things you want but are not “musts,” and,
- Long-term goals (time-frame 1-5 years) are focused on your family’s dreams and desires.
Short Term Resolutions – Describe your ideal experience for 2019 – Instead of starting with something you want to achieve describe what you MUST experience in 2019. For example, many families say “We want to go on more vacations as a family.” That’s may be a fine goal, but if money becomes tight the family vacation and resolution go out the window. Instead consider, “We are making time for fun family experiences together.” (NOTE: You are not using MUST in the statement, but the emotional importance needs to be there for follow-through. Also, “We are…” is an important start and prompts the brain to find ways to make it happen.) This outcome gets you thinking toward building a list of fun things you can do as a family including: vacation, walks in the park, trip to the beach, day trip to a nearby quaint town, family baking showdown, crafts time, pajama and movie day, weekly game night, dinner together 3x per week, to name a few. Make the statement something that fits your family and really feels something you MUST achieve in 2019!
Short-term Goals – Write a Family Fun list – In this list each family contributes 25 things they want to do in the upcoming year. Remember this isn’t a “to-do” list, so have fun with it and let your imaginations run wild. Some items may be stretch goals, like scuba diving in Australia, or may be simple goals like calling Grandma once a week. This is a great list to create New Year’s Eve while you are waiting for the ball to drop. Be sure to keep the list on a phone or somewhere it’s easy to access. Reference the list when you want a family activity and pull it out at least once a month to see what you have done and talk about the items you want to do before the year is over. Below is my daughter’s list from 2015.
Long-term Goals – Create a family vision board – Create a family vision board that includes pictures of all your dreams and desires. The board can include things you want to do as a family and even one or two individual items. Getting ideas can be as simple as gathering magazines and cutting out pictures or using a computer and nearby printer to google family interests and print from there. You can do this on large pasteboard or a small 8.5×11 piece of paper (the smaller size allows for photocopying one for each member of the family to display in his/her room and/or office). There is no right or wrong way to make a vision board, so make it your own. There is not a better day than New Year’s Day to talk about dreams and desires, so set aside a couple of hours to get creative together. As you achieve your goals, track your success on your vision board with stars or stickers. You will be surprised by how much you can achieve when you envision it first! Here is our family Vision board created 5 years ago – I ran out of stars so you can’t tell we have accomplished 20 out of 29 items on this board.
It’s time we change those sad New Year’s Eve resolution statistics with a fresh way to look at goal-setting. These have worked wonders for my family, I would love to hear how they work for yours.
