Are you and your family making "New Year's Resolutions?"  Even your youngest child can set New Year's Resolutions.  Resolutions can help you and your family focus on what is really important during the coming year.  New Year's Resolutions are simply "stated goals."  We "resolve" to do something, but in reality they are simply goals that we would like to attain.  With that in mind, perhaps setting a resolution to "take one action step per day that moves you toward your ultimate goal" is more appropriate and attainable than simply stating "I will lose weight this year" or whatever your goal is.  Think about it, if we simply do one thing every day that we didn't do before, things would change.  We would be that much closer to reaching our goal.

If you have never set goals before here are some handy tips to get you started:

1. Set goals that you really want not just what sounds good or what your friend thinks is good.
   
2. State the goal in great detail, be specific (remember, you get what you ask for).
   
3. Write down what you want, not what you don't want.  Goals are your mind's instruction manual.  The subconcious will be working on your goals 24/7.  The mind does not understand or "hear" the negatives in a statement.  It only picks up the main idea.  For example:  the mind hear's "I don't want to play on the J.V. team this year" as "I want to play on the JV team this year."  A more effective goal statement would be to say what you want:  "I want to play on Varsity this year."  An even stronger statement would be "I play on the varsity basketball team this year."  Getting more detailed is even more powerful:  "I play starting Center on the boy's/girl's Varsity basketball team at ABC High School."
   
4. State a time frame.  It can be any timeframe you want but setting a timeframe gives the goal more urgency.
5. Chunk the goal into smaller pieces.  For example, if your goal is to "be more organized" you will be more successful if you break up your objectives.  "I live in an organized home" becomes "I organize my closet daily" and "I replace belongings to their 'homes'" or "I will organize one room in my home per week and all rooms will be organized by February 20, 2009 (if you have a seven room home)."  You get the idea.
6. Reward your efforts.  Plan a set of rewards ahead of time so that you know what you are working toward.  Here are some examples:  a night out with friends, a new DVD, a massage, a new gadget, a new book, etc.  Be creative, make sure it is something you want and go for it.  In the example of organizing one room a week you may want to give yourself small rewards for each room and one large bonus reward at the end.
7. Most importantly: Write your "Knock-Your-Socks-Off Goals" down somewhere where you will see them daily.  Writing them down gives them power and focus.
   

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