Do you make a New Year’s resolution? It’s natural this time of year to think about new goals in the new year.

As adults, we often make a resolution to do SOMETHING: Read more, exercise, eat better, spend more time together as a family.

It’s also a great time to bring your family together to set some personal and family goals for the upcoming year.

Here are 4 Tips on Having a Family Goal-Setting Session for 2019!

Make It Fun!

Let’s face it: Getting kids to do something we as parents want to do isn’t always easy. Try turning “task” into more of a game, challenge, competition or event that they’ll want to participate in, and it’s sure to be a GOLDEN experience!

Start by setting a date and letting everyone know that it will be a family fun day, with time spent together dreaming and creating. Then, tell your family to start thinking about what they really want in their lives to make it better — and not “things.”

Decide on how you want to celebrate the goals that are met throughout the year: A star chart? Family outing rewards? (Like a Family Swim date at Goldfish Swim School?) Something else? Discuss as a family for an incentive to produce some extraordinary results by the end of the year.

On the day of your family goal-setting session, gather all your supplies (see below) and do your thing! If you’re into music, have a dance party when you agree on a good family goal. Maybe bake some extravagant dessert together, or do something else you wouldn’t often do together after you’ve completed your family goal-setting session.

Brainstorm

When it comes to determining your family’s New Year’s Resolutions, dream big! Write down EVERYTHING you want to do, want to learn, want to stop doing — and not just in the next year, but in your life. Even if it seems impossible. Want to learn a new language? Learn to swim? Visit Italy? Volunteer at an animal shelter? Become a doctor? Write it down!

Tell everyone to picture the best version of themselves and go from there. Include personal and family goals, such as:

  • Skills to learn
  • Places to go, near and far
  • Habits to break
  • Good characteristics to embrace
  • Things to do for others
  • Ways to be a better person
  • School and career goals
  • Improvements to life at home
  • Money-saving goals

Narrow Things Down

Now that you have a long list of all the possibilities out there, it’s time to narrow it down to the ones to accomplish this year. Too many goals can be overwhelming, so we want to list the ones to focus on first. You can narrow them down by type of goals — and there doesn’t have to be one (or only one) for every category. You make the rules when it comes to your family goal-setting session!

Personal goals:

  • One bad thing to curb
  • One new good thing to start
  • One skill or thing to learn
  • One harder “dream” goal
  • One long-term goal to achieve this year
  • One long-term life goal to keep working toward

Family Goals:

  • One way to spend more time together
  • One bad habit to break
  • One thoughtful thing to incorporate
  • One new thing to learn or do together
  • One place to go
  • One purchase to save for

Display Your Goals

The more we visualize and are constantly reminded of something, the more likely we’ll accomplish what we set out to do. Create a dream board or some other decorative way to remind yourself and your family every day about the goals you’re all working on.

  • Start with a cool backdrop. Whether it’s colored construction paper, bright poster board, canvas, black canvas, chalkboard, dry-erase board, or anything you can write on and display.
  • Get colorful utensils. Depending on the age and skill level of your kids, grab markers of all different colors and sizes, metallic pens, crayons, pens, chalk, chalk pens, etc.
  • Use crafty embellishments. That includes glitter, paint and paintbrushes, wax crayons, glue, rhinestones, feathers, stickers, stamps, and whatever else you think may match up with some of your goals.
  • Add pictures. Cut out visuals from magazines, draw pictures to accompany goals, or implement family pictures.

Learn To Swim at Goldfish Swim School

If one of your family goals or New Year’s resolutions for 2019 is learning how to swim, check out Goldfish Swim School! With dozens of locations around the country, and more popping up all the time, there’s likely one near you. Stop in and see what we mean when we provide WOW! customer service — and how every team member embodies integrity, compassion and trust.