Goals or Resolutions?

Every year, my husband and I set up a family meeting. In this meeting, we make family goals, personal goals, financial goals, spiritual goals, and health goals. The first of the year is the perfect time for us to reassess how the previous year went and also start fresh with new habits that will hopefully promote peace and tranquility in the home.

Well, that is the "goal" anyway.

I really try to avoid New Year's resolutions. To me, a resolution is something that happens on New Year's Day. Like for example, those who give up smoking usually quit on January 1st and resolve that they will no longer smoke cigarettes. While some are successful at making such proclamations, there are many more that by the second or third week of January have lost their drive to continue and fall off the wagon. I have made plenty of resolutions and few, if any, have ever continued into February.

With a goal, you set a timeline. For example, we would like to save a certain amount of money in our savings account. We set up quarterly goals, much like a business, and take a certain amount to set aside every month to help us get there. In a few months, we reassess to see where we are at, making adjustments to get to our goals more efficiently. If something isn't working, we change it. There isn't this absolute like in a resolution that makes it feel like if we don't go about it a certain way, it is a failure. Goals are just that, we are striving toward something and there is not one certain way to get there.

Some people may like "all or nothing" resolutions, but for me and my family having goals is a great way to start the year fresh and full of optimism that will last the whole year. 

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