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Hey y’all! I’m slipping in this quick un-planned blog post really quick. My husband told me this morning that he wanted to do New Year resolutions with the kids, so I created some worksheets this afternoon to help guide my older kids. We’ll do an impromptu family meeting today (or tomorrow if we’re too busy playing games and snuggling in front of movies tonight).

I have lots of thoughts about typical New Year resolutions. I don’t always like them, because I think there is a wrong way to do it. I think it is crazy to write a huge list of things you’d like to change about yourself, and hope that with a few weeks of focus, then you’ll suddenly be perfect. I loathe the tendency to do goal setting like that. I think it does more harm than good, because when those unrealistic plans don’t work out, we lose hope and can slip further away from our goals. And besides, it is daunting from the beginning.

I prefer short lists that set a direction for us to go. SMART goals are good and I think we could talk more about that a different day, but I don’t think of New Year’s resolutions like that. I think of goals set in the New Year as being intentional about the direction we’re going to start going in the New Year. We don’t set these resolutions and wake up doing them perfectly, but we can keep returning to them and keep trying to become better at it in the New Year.

Last year, one of my goals was “to sit on the soft seats at church.” Yes, that was an actual goal. It really isn’t about the seats as much as it is about arriving to church on time. Did I make my goal 100%? Nope. But did we get much better at it? Yes!

I haven’t decided on all my resolutions yet. They’re coming to me, though.

Download the worksheets here.

And if you’re looking for a great New Year’s goal – join our declutter challenge!!

Here’s to making 2018 a fabulous year!

From my home to yours,
Mary