We’ve all heard the saying… “if you fail to plan you plan to fail”.
It’s often used in the context of an individual planning to win something in life. Without a plan, you’ve only got a dream that can easily fade away.
While this is great in the self-help circles, it also applies in the family life.
Family Goal Setting is a Family Business
It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle of the daily grind to assume the family has a goal mapped out for the new year.
We sit around and talk about our personal resolutions and ambitions outside the context of the family. But the CEO of his/her home knows that the family needs it’s own road-map for success too.
While the practice of sitting down as a family to plan a year will be different when raising toddlers than it is teenagers, the habit of sitting down and planning ahead is still a family business.
The toddlers may not be able to plan beyond the next five minutes, such as what they may want to do for lunch while it’s still time from mid-morning snacks, the practice is important.
Getting teens to sit and plan out six months in advance is said to be very difficult, but some families seem to do just fine.
The ones that amaze are the families that can sit together as adults and plan the legacy of the entire family tree in advance. That’s kind of the the goal here. Planning the habit of planning so that in years to come, it’s a family tree affair. But, let’s not get to far ahead of the post just yet.
Why Family Goals
Besides the fact we’re leading by example when we sit the family together to do plans together, we’re also taking advantage of an opportunity to learn about the various desires and aspirations of the whole family.
The son may want to develop a certain skill that is different than the daughter. The pressing needs of the wife aren’t the same pressing needs of the husband.
When working together toward a family set of goals, it gives a sense of community, belonging, unity, and teamwork for the whole family.
These goals don’t have to be heavy and serious either. They can be fun and exciting. One can have the goal of family worship on a daily basis and the goal of learning to paint together twice a month.
Much like personal goals, the family goals have to have a clear start and end time, a clear set of goals and steps to reach, and be practical. As well as being useful to the family, as each family needs to custom their goals to work for them.
The generic goal of everyone feeling connected is not as easy to reach as one where the family agrees to go fishing once a month and discuss their achievements of the month while supporting each other with advice about future projects.
The generic one feels good when you make it but is hard to measure.
The more specific goal is a smarter goal. There is specificity, measurements, a time frame, and can be reviewed and reached in the time expected.
CEOs of the home understand that this practice has benefits not just for the family but the development of everyone inside the home. Having planning skills and systems of reaching goals is a learn-able skill that helps in all other walks of life.
In school, on the job, and everywhere that requires goals, knowing how to set up goals and how to keep them until success is a great value for the family.
Feeling invested into the well-being of the family is a great feeling. When people feel they have skin in the game, they’re more likely to do the work to ensure the win. When every member of the family feels they have a say in the outcome of the growth of the family, they’re more likely work harder to make the communal goals a reality.
Family Business
A mentor once explained that when a person doesn’t mind their own business, they’re at the mercy of whomever decides their fate. If you don’t plan to win, you’re allowing someone else to easily win at your expense.
The family that doesn’t plan to have a great year often are at the mercy of the social forces tugging for their attention
The family has to make their wellness their priority. The CEOs of the home have to be mindful of more than paying the rent/mortgage as the primary goal of the family. There are so many facets of life that has to be developed over the course of time. Each year should have a focus and an aspiration to reach.
Everyone should be concerned with the growth and prosperity of the family. These families who do, those families grow and reach new heights on a yearly basis. Even when there are rough and tough years, they’re able to work a family plan to turn things around and weather the season until things pick back up again.
What’s your goals?
Dear CEOs of the home, what are your plans for the year. Sure, many people have already started to forget about their resolutions for the year. By the time the next month rolls around, many would have forgotten their resolutions.
The keen CEO of the home has in mind to review the goals and objectives on a regular basis. They don’t forget. They’ve got systems to help them remember. It’s vital that the good start of the year keeps going throughout the whole of the year.
Feel free to leave a comment sharing your goals. We’ll be happy to support you with posts designed to help you think of creative ways to reach your goals.
Are you planning to improve the communication style of the family? The financial wellness of the family? The amount of fun the family shares? Or the academic levels of the family?
Whatever your goals, they’re worth seeing to completion. Be sure to build your goals as a family. It should not always be top down in choice or bottom up in influence. Everyone has to pitch in and contribute towards the creation of the goal… and completion thereof.
Wishing you all, CEOs of the home, much success this year as you pursue your dreams of leading your home forward into the future.
Stay blessed and focused always.
