How to Set Family Goals

Goals are such an important part of an emotionally healthy life. So as we look back, I wanted to update you on my goal progress in 2018. Plus, I can’t wait to share with you all the various ways you can incorporate goals into your life and your family! Have you ever thought about creating goals as a family? Well, let me tell you of our experience creating family goals and how to set family goals. I’ll also include plenty of examples to get you thinking!

Family goals are just that, they are goals for the family. You can set goals together with your spouse for your family. Or you can create goals sitting down together as a family.

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Set Family Goals with Your Spouse

Typically after Christmas is over, when it is a bit quieter, my husband and I will have a discussion about goals for our family. In years past, when the kids were younger we just chatted on our own.

Do you know your goal setting style? Work together as a couple playing off your natural strengths! Read here!

If we had set goals, the year before, we would get out that previous year’s goal sheet and look it over. It is such a nice feeling seeing all the completed goals. If there are any uncompleted goals you can decide whether to move them onto next year’s goal sheet.

Then we focus on the upcoming year. This is more of a big dream and ideas plan meeting. Have fun brainstorming and try not to get too bogged down on details yet.

What would we like to accomplish?
Are there any BIG goals that we need to discuss (moving, job changes, starting a business, etc…)?
Are there personal goals we want to work toward that will take up a lot of time?
Is there anything we want to learn?
Do we want to do any home repairs or improvements?
Where do we want to go on vacation?
Are there any small trips or experiences we want to do with the kids?
Are there any life events coming up we need to plan for such as graduations, weddings, or anniversaries?

Goals for the Kids

How are the kids doing?
Do we want to focus on teaching a certain skill to the kids?
Are there certain character qualities that we want to focus on with each of our teenagers?
Do we have any individual goals for the kids?

Write Down Your Family Goals

After you have dreamed and discussed, write down the goals that you all agree upon. If there are certain first steps you need to take to make them happen, make sure to write those down too.

Again this planning meeting should be fun.

But you will be amazed as to how setting aside one or two hours to discuss family goals will set your intentions for the whole year!

This fun family goal meeting will improve your communication throughout the year and making decisions on activities and outside involvement more streamlined.

Have a Family Meeting to Discuss Goals

Include the kids in the discussion about family goals. This can be done casually over the dinner table or at a planned “family meeting.” You may wish to just share some of the goals you are setting for the family or you can ask your kids if they wish to add to the goals, like where they would like to go on vacation that year.

As the kids get older, encourage them to set their own goals. Again, this can be done very causally while hanging out together. If your teens have some bigger goals to work on, encourage them to sit down and get more specific.

Learn here how to set up “Scholarship Saturdays” with your teenager to work on scholarship goals!

Update on My Goal Progress in 2018

So switching gears, here is how my goals went for this past year!

Last year for 2018, I purchased a physical planner. While the planner cost more then I typically spend on a planner, I was so excited to own this beautiful planner. The Brilliant Life Planner has been so instrumental in helping me set weekly goals, track my ongoing goals and see my progress.

By far, the reflection sheet and tops goals of the week areas were the most life changing! For me, having to slow down each week, give thanks for the gifts in my life and write down my progress was very significant. I tend to see the huge chasm that I have yet to cross and forget all the goals, big and small that I have accomplished.

Brilliant Business Moms planner is no longer available! This is the planner I have used and loved for the past several years – Day Designer Mini Planner

Plus, I love the space where you write down your top 3 goals for the week, personally and professionally. This is such a fantastic idea. Because we all know, how half way through the week, we can start to just run around doing what “feels” most urgent and lose all focus!

Beth Anne, of Brilliant Business Moms, suggests creating 5 main areas for your life. And then put your top 2-3 goals in each area. So that is how I broke down this years goals.

Family Goals

Little Red and I made a ton of progress on her baking goals. I had decided I would help her as she learned to become more comfortable in the kitchen, so she picked out several recipes she wanted to try this year. We worked through her list of items she wanted to bake, some we pulled from Baking with Mary Berry .

We raced through those recipes pretty quickly. And she continued to bake new recipes along with more familiar recipes. Little Red was even invited to make the cupcakes for the Spring Banquet

For our family, I had set the goal of eating dinner more often at the table. With the crazy schedule we had for a while, we had gotten away from sitting at the table every dinner. We did hit my goal of sitting at the table at least 2-3 times a week for dinner. And we were also able to have more families over for dinner this year, since I was feeling better health wise.

Faith Goals

Having a quiet time in the morning works best for me. And I typically do best when I have a Bible Study course of some kind that I am working through. I desired to continue this habit and grow in my faith in God.

At the end of last year, I never felt like God showed me why I had to struggle so long to get over my 3rd heart attack in 2016. If anything it felt like God told me that He didn’t need to answer my “why.”

So this year felt like it continued forward with a big question mark.

But one day I was reading something, and it struck me that faith is just that – FAITH. It is believing in what you cannot always see OR feel. I don’t have to wait until I “feel” God to continue to believe He is here, at work.

Now, I’m not saying that you will never have those moments, because we CAN anticipate seeing God at work and “feeling” His blessing. But it is very freeing to know that I can be just as assured of His Goodness today whether I feel it or not!

Homeschool Goals

For this year, I wanted to go on some more field trips with Little Red and make school a bit more fun.

We went on some group outings including roller skating, the zoo and a play. Little Red went with me to the Midwest Homeschool Convention, and we had a great time hanging out. It was so fun seeing the booths she was drawn too and the speakers to which she responded. We were typically drawn to complete opposites!

Health/ Wellness Goals

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

Good news it that I continued to get stronger this year. I have been careful about my caffeine and sugar intake. And I am down to taking my medications just once a day and no longer need quite so much help with chest pain and fatigue.

For our annual walk-a-thon for a local charity I was able to walk the whole 5 miles no problems, when last year I only made it one mile! I even managed to be a part of the worship dance team for vacation bible school at my church. It was such a reward to learn all the moves and have fun with my daughter as our group led the kids in some fun songs

Bad news is that I still struggled to create a sustainable work out routine. As I started trying to read more on how we truly create habits, I have learned that when you are making a new habit that it can help to attach it to a habit you already have in place.

And I also learned that you can move and do stretches even if you aren’t in “work-out mode” which has helped some. So even if I only have 5 minutes, I can do yoga stretches, as something is better than nothing. So I guess, I did more exercise overall then before, but I am a long way to where I want to be.

Finance/ Business Goals

Country Boy and I had agreed to purchase another piece of equipment for the farming/ cattle business. We had intended to buy some additional hay equipment, but we couldn’t find any for the right price and condition we wanted.

Country Boy did find an amazing deal on a tractor, that also came with two other pieces of equipment. So we purchased that this year.

We also took on additional farm land to farm. Unfortunately, this year soy beans took a terrible dip in price. And the weather was consistently rainy to boot, which caused extremely low yields. So we walked away from farming this year with almost nothing to show for it other than lots of experience.

Thankfully, we had another great year with our cattle, with 16 new babies! All the moms and babies are doing very well!

The Reluctant Cowgirl

My blog was kinda like farming this year. I worked my tail off, learned a ton and produced a lot of blog “babies”;) My traffic numbers increased by 6X, but it wasn’t quite the yield I was hoping for.

However, I did create and strengthen many new blogging relationships, create a Resource Library and landing page, get on both Pinterest and Instagram and redefine my message a ton! And I tried to bring my best to my work while still keeping it as a priority below my faith and family.