I often hear people talk about how they don't bother with New Year's resolutions anymore, because they never keep them and then they have guilt, etc.
I've never been able to quite feel comfortable with that perspective for myself. One of the core principles of my faith is the responsibility to live up to our potential - to be continually improving, striving to be like our Savior and overcoming our weaknesses. Goal setting seems the most logical way to continue to move forward on the path of self improvement.
A friend and neighbor of mine gave a talk in church last week, and one of the things she talked about was the opportunity goal setting provides for growth and improvement, even when we don't achieve everything we set out to. She talked about how making some progress on a goal or resolution gets us that much further ahead than we were before. Or than we would be if we simply chose not to set any goals for ourselves. This really struck me as something important to remember.
The beginning of a new year seems to leave us all eager to turn the page on the past, start anew and do things better. Whether we like to call them "resolutions" or not, we all have things in our head that we intend to do better this year.
For me, there is a lot. But I'm going to try to narrow it down to a main goal or 2 in each of 3 different areas. I don't have it all ironed out yet, but it is going to be the topic of our Family Home Evening lesson tonight. I'm going to challenge each family member to set a spiritual goal, a goal to help improve our home/family, and a personal improvement goal (like fitness, money management, school, etc.). I'm still working out a good tracking method that will hopefully help us keep focused and accountable. I welcome any suggestions!
I know that a big theme for my goals is going to have to be "simplify". I have a new baby on the way - 4 weeks at the most until she arrives! I have my school board responsibilities, I also have 3 kids taking music lessons, and 2 of them playing a sport. There is a lot to complicate my life if I let it and I have got to come up with a way to reduce the stress and enjoy being a mom and wife, because I really don't want to look back and regret my level of enjoyment during my children's growing up years. I want to remember being happy, and truly enjoying all the experiences we have together.
I'm trying to come up with a plan to be able to fit regular blogging back into my schedule, because I think sharing with my friends my ideas, successes and failures, as well as asking for advice, are great ways to keep me striving to reach my goals. I hope you'll all be able to help encourage me, and give me suggestions to help me along the journey this year!
Tomorrow I'll tell you how Family Home Evening went, what I came up with, and maybe share how we're going to track it as well.
Do you set New Year's resolutions? If so, how do you stay on track, and what is a favorite resolution for this year?
I've never been able to quite feel comfortable with that perspective for myself. One of the core principles of my faith is the responsibility to live up to our potential - to be continually improving, striving to be like our Savior and overcoming our weaknesses. Goal setting seems the most logical way to continue to move forward on the path of self improvement.
A friend and neighbor of mine gave a talk in church last week, and one of the things she talked about was the opportunity goal setting provides for growth and improvement, even when we don't achieve everything we set out to. She talked about how making some progress on a goal or resolution gets us that much further ahead than we were before. Or than we would be if we simply chose not to set any goals for ourselves. This really struck me as something important to remember.
The beginning of a new year seems to leave us all eager to turn the page on the past, start anew and do things better. Whether we like to call them "resolutions" or not, we all have things in our head that we intend to do better this year.
For me, there is a lot. But I'm going to try to narrow it down to a main goal or 2 in each of 3 different areas. I don't have it all ironed out yet, but it is going to be the topic of our Family Home Evening lesson tonight. I'm going to challenge each family member to set a spiritual goal, a goal to help improve our home/family, and a personal improvement goal (like fitness, money management, school, etc.). I'm still working out a good tracking method that will hopefully help us keep focused and accountable. I welcome any suggestions!
I know that a big theme for my goals is going to have to be "simplify". I have a new baby on the way - 4 weeks at the most until she arrives! I have my school board responsibilities, I also have 3 kids taking music lessons, and 2 of them playing a sport. There is a lot to complicate my life if I let it and I have got to come up with a way to reduce the stress and enjoy being a mom and wife, because I really don't want to look back and regret my level of enjoyment during my children's growing up years. I want to remember being happy, and truly enjoying all the experiences we have together.
I'm trying to come up with a plan to be able to fit regular blogging back into my schedule, because I think sharing with my friends my ideas, successes and failures, as well as asking for advice, are great ways to keep me striving to reach my goals. I hope you'll all be able to help encourage me, and give me suggestions to help me along the journey this year!
Tomorrow I'll tell you how Family Home Evening went, what I came up with, and maybe share how we're going to track it as well.
Do you set New Year's resolutions? If so, how do you stay on track, and what is a favorite resolution for this year?
Comments
Can't wait to see this new baby of yours!!! Sorry I missed getting to see you last month!!!
Can't wait to see this new baby of yours!!! Sorry I missed getting to see you last month!!!
I love your idea for FHE! While I was on my mission, I had a companion who told me that growing up they had a Sunday night planning session with the family. Their parents would call all together, they would pull out the calendar, and talk about their activities (practices for sports or music or whatever) and mark it down so their parents knew what was going on in their lives. They also would talk about their goals, and how they were doing on them. It is something I really want to do with my kids when they are older, so I can be very involved in their lives, and always know what is happening. Just a suggestion for you. I hope you find something that will help you and your family!
I think most people set big goals or ideas-- but then don't think of specific steps to reach those goals, so they get overwhelmed and just don't bother.