Throw Resolutions out the Window

New year resolutions haunt my past and I’m sure many of yours. I’m pretty sure I’m around 200 pounds shy of the many years of saying I’m gunna lose …insert weight here. I think resolutions are just ways to really sell people new products that claim to be miracles, lose weight fast, or organize a space for life… I WISH!!

A few years ago my husband and I started to come up with goals for the year instead of resolutions. It started one year on the drive back from our Christmas with our family in MN. We started to categorize them as financial, marital, family, spiritual, and we also put down things we really just hoped to do in the coming year. This has been really lucrative in the past for us, and we have met many of those goals, but not all, we are still human!!

Goals

Financial goals are usually a set number of money put in our savings or investments for the year. Paying more on our mortgage, donating more money, monthly budget meetings with each other, and being comfortable where we are in our financial life. We have talked finances since we got together, and feel that a good open communication is the way to a good marriage. We also love Dave Ramsey and his plans have really made a huge difference in our life. If you have questions about Dave Ramsey please don’t hesitate to ask.

Marital goals can be as simple as a date night a few times a month, year or maybe just taking some time after the kids go to sleep to talk to each other about something other than the kids and routine. We took an adult vacation last year for out 10 year wedding anniversary and it was wonderful. We rented a airbnb and went fishing for 5 days. It was so nice just to be a couple again, and talk as we did back before children. This was our big marital goal last year. Of course we missed the kids like crazy, but the closeness we gained back was oh so worth it!!

Family goals can be anything big or small. We usually set a goal for outings each month, just us 4 to go somewhere fun, either hiking, or zoo, or baseball, no matter what it is we just want to get away with each other and have a good time. You could also set a goal to have dinner together at the table a few times a week without electronics, play with your kids without distractions a few times a week, read more books together, go on a walk together once a week, really anything that you want to work on with your family will be a great goal.

Spiritual goals can be tricky for some. I understand not all family’s have a strong belief, if any. We made a spiritual goal last year to join a church around our home. This turned out to be one of the best things we did last year! The community has been amazing, along with 2 new very dear friends that have helped me more than I can explain. Other spiritual goals could be, reading a verse daily, going into nature more, send out positive vibes into the universe, or whatever else makes your heart happy and your soul calm.

Aspiring for more

Some of the other things we discuss in our yearly goal making discussion is what we want to do in the coming year. Vacations we want to go on, athletic games we want to go to, books or number of books we want to read, events such as 10k or others that we want to participate in, ideas for house projects, people we want to spend more time with, and so many other things that we want to do in the future. This is fun, and we really do enjoy just dreaming of things that might come to be. We usually talk about our own individual goals and help each other to define them more, or tell each other what we have noticed in areas in our lives where each could improve.

This is one of my favorite things to do with my husband. I love to be on the same page of what we both aspire to do in the new year, and what we want to put our time and energy into.

Remember the JOY

This is also a great time to review the year that has passed. Things we did and goals that maybe we did not quite reach and why. It’s fun to look through pictures along with doing a review of the year, and see how everyone in the family has changed throughout the year!

Does your family do anything like this or something different? I’d love to hear other ideas!

I pray that your year is amazing, full of love, fun, new adventures, and all the joy you can handle.

-Kristy