We sit down and have a family meeting on Sunday evenings. It’s a way for our family of 6 to make sure we are all on the same page for the upcoming week, celebrate accomplishments from the prior week, and more. We assign chores, distribute allowance, plan our weekly menu and share our goals for the week. (I capture it all in my Erin Condren Life Planner… love that thing!)
One thing I’m good at is setting goals. I can set goals all day long… implementing and accomplishing those goals is a different story. As we sit down each week to discuss our goals from the week before, I’ve discovered I’ve passed on that lovely skill to my kids as well. We are all great at goal setting, but tend to fall short of following through and reaching our goals. I decided after several weeks of the same answer of “No” to the “Did you reach your goal?” question, it was time for a change.
After some research on helping kids (and adults) to set and reach their goals, I came up with the following solutions to help us reach our goals:
- Post goals in an open and accessible space… I keep our meeting notes in my planner, which is fine for me, but not great for everyone else. By posting each of our goals in a central location in our home, we can see them and are reminded of them daily.
- Set up systems for accountability… My kids are brilliant narks, and when it comes to goals, that’s a good thing. If Jacob knows Kelly has a goal to read everyday and she hasn’t, he’s going to happily remind her that she still needs to do what she committed to. Same with me and running… they have a crazy way of laying on the guilt if I fail to do what I’ve said I was going to.
- Be encouraging… It’s fun to know that other people see you are trying hard to reach your goals and they help you by encouraging you along the way. I’ve started sharing some of my favorite Hallmark cards with my kids just so they know I see them trying hard and know they can do anything they set their minds too! We’ve also set up a jar for the kids to write on slips of paper little things they catch each other doing to reach their goal. At each family meeting, we are reading those slips and drawing one name out for a special prize. Both the nominator and the nominee get the prize, which is a great way to encourage…well, being encouraging!
Goal setting and reaching your goals isn’t always easy… but with the right tools in place and a little encouraging help from your friends, anything is doable!
What are some of the ways you hold yourself and others accountable to reaching their goals? I’d love any ideas you have on how we can make reaching our goals more attainable!
Disclosure: I am honored to be a 2012 paid brand ambassador for Hallmark Life is a Special Occasion. All opinions expressed are my own. For special discounts, product offerings and news about Hallmark, feel free to sign up for their newsletter.
Wow. I’m super impressed that you have a weekly family meeting. I don’t think our family has ever had a family meeting unless there was some kind of crisis. I want to be organized like you when I grow up. Okay…when I retire.
As far as goal setting – I’m so bad. I usually set some goals around the first of each year but the follow through…well, I won’t go there. Looking forward to seeing what others post to get some inspiration!
I think this is a fantastic idea!
And I cannot wait to get my planner! 🙂
Great post! I love your ideas, esp. this: “At each family meeting, we are reading those slips and drawing one name out for a special prize. Both the nominator and the nominee get the prize…”
Fun!
We always had family meetings when I was growing up and I can’t wait to start that with my family in the future.
Very cool Kristen. Great advice. We are all very goal driven in our house. All but one is a type A personality so we all have a list a mile long & hold ourselves accountable when we don’t accomplish everything on it. Usually it’s because of other things that have come up- but a big thing we try to teach the kids is how to prioritize things. Nothing on the want list gets looked at until the need list is complete.
I think in general we’re all pretty good at setting goals… but not good at actually seeing them through (think New Years)! I wish I was better at attaining my goals, but here are 3 keys that help (when use them!) I really think attainable goals posted where you can see them every day is one key.
The other key is that if you don’t reach a goal – don’t give up but recommit – studies show those that keep resolutions are those that struggled then recommitted.
Also having the broken down into how you are going to achieve it helps – for example: I’m going to stay within a budget vs. Before I spend any money I will make sure I have money to spend (which usually will require me to update our finances before going shopping.)
Love the new look!!!! And I love all your goal setting ideas 🙂 As a fellow family of 6 I’m always looking for ideas!
I was just thinking that we should start doing a family meeting as we’re all moving more out into the world.
I love this post, Kristen!
Totally ordering an Erin Condren Life Planner Kristen!
I just LOVE you as a mom!
ANd you know I love your new design!
xo
Great post. I am forwarding to all the mom’s I know. It kind of makes me want a family so we can have Sunday gathering. I wonder if it would work with Lenny?
Sounds like you guys are well on your way to getting things done. I post one of those giant desk calendars on our kitchen wall and it is our command central…6 different colored pens…old school, but it works for us.
Those are really great tips! Right now my kiddos are still little & with The Hubble still deployed I don’t have anyone to help keep me on track with my goals. But I love this post & I love the idea of the encouragement jar. Thanks for the ideas! I’m definitely going to use some of these in the future!
Those are really great tips! Right now my kiddos are still little & with The Hubble still deployed I don’t have anyone to help keep me on track with my goals. But I love this post & I love the idea of the encouragement jar. Thanks for the ideas! I’m definitely going to use some of these in the future!
I love your family and your traditions!
I love that planner!!! Trying to figure out how I can convince hubby that I NEED to spend $50 on a planner?!
You sound like such an amazing mom Kristin! Both my boys are grown, but looking back I wish I had done more stuff like this with them. Good for you for seeing things through. I too am a good goal setter but not always good to accomplish them. Your post was very insightful for me.
Love this post, Kristen. Setting up goals are so important. Without a goal, there’s nothing to look forward to 🙂
I’m also good at goal setting but bad at follow-through…keeping my goals in an obvious place definitely helps a lot! So does setting reasonable goals so I know I have no excuse not to complete them 🙂 I find it helps to set limits for myself such as “I have to complete this aspect of my goal before I can…” Keeps me on track and focused and gives me a reward to look forward to!
Kristen,
We do a weekly family meeting, also, but it has a different focus and is absolute torture for our young teens – according to them!
As part of the meeting, we do a compliment circle where we each give a compliment to every person. Of course, it brings tears to my eyes when everyone is doing me!
For accomplishing goals for the week, I don’t do that now that my kids are older. I used to have a weekly chart that was on the refrigerator and was a check off type chart.
Now, I go with the “To Do List” for weekend things – chores, chicken coop, room cleaning, etc. the bigger items.
It was hard at first for me to let go and NOT micro manage my kids during the week with school, piano, etc. but I love it! I have more time to spend on Pinterest 😉
Pretty pictures – of course!
Kristen, family life can be so hectic, it’s important to be reminded of what’s important! So thank you.
Also, I can’t get over how BEAUTIFUL your site is! Love the graphics and the casual elegant feel.
Kristen, family life can be so hectic, it’s important to be reminded of what’s important! So thank you.
Also, I can’t get over how BEAUTIFUL your site is! Love the graphics and the casual elegant feel.
I can definitely relate; in a recent personality test my character strengths were ambitious and innovative. My weaknesses were motivation, follow through, and perserverance. Great combo, huh? Anyway, what I’ve found works for me is setting a goal list, keeping it in my phone, and knowing that I can buy myself a special gift at the end of the time alotted to achieve that goal. The trick here is to keep updating your goal list to maintain progress monitoring and don’t buy yourself other gifts until you’ve really reached that goal. Be true to yourself.
Ugh… just the first two sentences of your post make me want to puke. Are you having a family or running an army division? My family never did any of that stuff and we all turned out fine. If you can call posting a comment like this fine…
Well Hugo,
Your mom was obviously a much better mom than I am.
Consider yourself lucky to have her.
Kristen
I think these are great ideas! My kids are great “narks” too so I love the idea of turning it into a positive thing with some all important intensives! Great post!
And well done keeping it positive! 🙂