Your New Year’s Resolution doesn’t have to be diet or exercise-focused, construct more intentional New Year’s Resolution with your family. Commonplace New Year’s Resolutions include: lose weight, eat healthier, go to the gym, etc. Don’t be afraid to brainstorm beyond these basic body-focused declarations to create meaningful goals for your family.
Create a Family Mission Statement
Successful businesses, non-profits and organizations have mission statements, why shouldn’t your family? Just because you have a family mission statement doesn’t mean you have to run your family like a business. But why not borrow some effective ideas from the marketplace to foster a more cohesive family unit? Crafting a family mission statement together will help give your family unity and direction. With everyone’s input you can lay out a vision of where you want your family to go and how ya’ll are going to get there. By going through the process of making a family mission statement you can help solidify how you want to help shape your children into the people of character you want them to become!
Choose a Theme (or Three) for 2015
If you have younger kids, or creating a family mission statement seems a little too daunting or involved, why not just pick one to three words that you want to become your family’s theme for 2015? What do you want to focus on in the new year? Is there something you feel that there is missing from your home? Examples for theme words could be: joy, thankfulness, kindness, loyalty, service, patience, etc. Think of the impact just one word could have on your entire year if you tried to apply it to every situation, find joy daily, remember to be grateful for the seemingly mundane, practice kindness to classmates and siblings, think of others first. Focusing on one small but powerful aspect and practicing it within a greater context is how you begin to create thoughtful and intentional kids with the potential to change their lives and the lives of others.
A Year of Service
If there are many interests and ideas in your family, more than a mission statement or a theme could hold, why not shoot for a year of service? Each month your family could choose to volunteer at a different place. Every family member could select a different organization and there are 12 months to match every interest. Animal lovers may choose the local shelter while foodies could pick the soup kitchen. You don’t have to volunteer at 12 different places, some nonprofits may prefer a longer term commitment. When teaching your kids about giving, don’t forget about treasure along with time and talent. Your family doesn’t have to volunteer every month, kids could help donate some of their chore money along with family funds toward a special cause.
Put Your Spouse First
This may seem counter intuitive to popular culture where everything is kid-centric, but putting your spouse first may change your year and your life. Our lives already heavily revolve around our kids’ school schedules and extracurricular activities, it’s important that your primary relationship doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Modeling a happy and healthy relationship for your children will help them have their own positive relationships later in life. Teaching your kids that the world doesn’t revolve around them will also help to make them more satisfied, patient and thoughtful. This may sound like an odd family resolution, but making sure you regularly date your spouse may be the best New Year’s Resolution you ever make.
Happy New Year everyone!
Original Source: https://squarecowmovers.com/a-different-kind-of-new-years-resolution/