"Goals" not "Resolutions"

Several years ago, when I still worked in Housing at Georgia Tech, my then-boss shared with me that she and her husband sit down each December and come up with a list of goals for the coming year. She made a point to tell me that they don't come up with "Resolutions," but rather "Goals." I didn't understand the distinction until she went into further detail.

The difference in their mind (and now mine as well) is that resolutions are things you want to do better, fix, change, get better at, etc. A very common example is losing weight. Goals are simply things you want to accomplish. An example of a goal is going on a week-long family vacation. Goals aren't things 'to change,' but simply 'to do.'

Now, all these years later, Seth and I make a point each December to sit down and come up with a list of goals for the following year. In case the idea of doing so inspires any of you who read my blog, I thought I'd write about the concept and include a few of our examples from our past and the future (2012 goals). (I think it's also important to note that we sit down at the end of each month and make a plan for the following month. We found that we'd otherwise 'book' ourselves with something less important and then wouldn't be able to do certain things because the opportunity flew past us.)

I know that some people reading this will think that calling them something other than resolutions is splitting hairs, just semantics, or something, but for us, it's really taken the pressure off. If we don't meet one of our goals (meaning it doesn't end up happening), there isn't this guilt of having broken a resolution. We simply didn't get around to that particular thing and can add it to the following year's list. As do most people, it seems, we keep ourselves pretty busy, so it's easy for a month or even a year to go by without having done some of the bigger things we'd hoped to do. Setting a list of goals has helped us to narrow our focus and do more of the important things and less just letting life pass us by. The opportunities don't go flying by us this way. It feels like we've taken charge of how we spend our time rather than just floating along, wasting time. It's been a really good thing for us. (Thanks Sheree!)

Some examples of goals: (some of which we've done and some of which we haven't)

-week-long trip to WI

-Spofford Family Vacation (all 10 of us)

-Plano hot air balloon festival

-host a Dinner & Games night each month

-bake cookies and deliver them to neighbors at Christmas time

-host Thanksgiving

-host Easter

-enroll Austin in swim lessons

-have nieces and nephew over 2 nights/year

-go on a babymoon

-buy new computer

-new retaining wall and fence

-buy a new car

-join a small group

-join a book club

-go on a girls' weekend

-go to the TX state fair

-new kitchen

In case you feel inspired, I want to also share the logistics of how we make this work. Each December, we simply get a piece of paper out and write down all the things we want to do in the coming year. We typically use local event calendars, Seth's scheduled vacation days calendar, as well as any schedules related to Bible studies or other things we're involved with for this process. We buy a desk calendar (those big, 2'x3', flat calendars) and begin writing immovable stuff on it. So, we write festivals and other planned events (like holidays) on it for the whole year.

Then, we come back each month to look at the things that are already written (in pencil!) on the wall calendar, and add things to it as we are inclined/available. If the goal doesn't involve a date on a calendar, we'll check in with each other each month to see where we stand with it--how much money do we have saved for that big purchase at this point, should we wait two more months to buy it, should we schedule people to give us a quote for that home repair, etc. We don't display the wall calendar, we just use it as a visual when we're talking about stuff.

We use a Creative Memories Everyday Display Board which I update each month with the happenings of that particular month. I have color-coded squares for each person for the big things for that person that month, and I print a copy of that month's calendar on white cardstock on which I then write our schedule for the coming month. It helps to have this displayed in the kitchen so we can always see what's going on and when.

It just so happened that our printer ran out of ink on December's calendar, making it more Christmas-y. :-)

Hopefully I've done a thorough enough job explaining our goal setting that you can begin doing it yourself, but not too much that I've completely bored you. ! And if you're not interested in doing it yourself, then you at least have gotten a better glimpse into how this household works. I really do love that we do this, though, and highly recommend it for everyone!! Happy Goal-ing! :-)