My first family goal was to get off welfare.
Even as I write that goal down, I feel a little sadness that it took me hitting rock bottom to realize the importance of creating goals for my family. I never made a conscious decision to become a welfare recipient. It just happened when my family began to fall apart. We didn’t have any direction or plans for our future. Life happened, and we drifted further and further away from being a healthy, stable family. I decided I did not want to continue receiving welfare and end up stuck on assistance. I knew I needed a plan; a documented, trackable method to keep me focused on my goal. In reality, It was agonizing to try to figure out what I needed to do to achieve my BIG goal of becoming self-sufficient.
Wat else did I need to stop doing
I had made many resolutions in the past, but I had never created any way to track my goals. I had never made any family-centered goals before, so this was all new territory for me. Instantly, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote “GET OFF OF WELFARE!!” at the top. Then, I sat there with my pen hovering over the paper. The next words were not clear. Dozens of questions raced through my mind. Above all, I wondered if just getting off welfare was what I wanted, how was I going to achieve getting off welfare, did I need a plan for AFTER I got off welfare, what else did I need to stop doing, what did I need to start doing, and the questions kept springing into my head.
I was excited about making changes
This was my first attempt at creating and tracking family goals. I was excited about making changes, determined to get on my feet, and focused on my family’s future. I began writing my questions down so I could look at them. Next, I organized them into columns: What do I need to do; How will I do it; When will I do it; Why/How will I know I reached my goals. Yikes! I had so many questions under each heading. Furthermore, I stopped there and took a couple of days to think about the process I needed to set goals and accomplish my goals.
The process I developed that week launched our journey as a family to overcome every obstacle to become a thriving family. As time went on, I refined our “Creating and Tracking Family Goals” into a simple system I call GET IT.
- Goals – write down the goal and put it somewhere you can see it every day
- Eliminate – stop doing things that keep you from reaching your goals
- Time – determine how much time it will take you to reach each goal
- Identify – list all the things you must do to reach your goals
- Take action together – implement your new activities and find ways to involve your family in the process. When others join you in making dreams become a reality, it adds that extra level of accountability to keep you moving in the right direction.
Setting goals as a family is a great way to build strong bonds while you teach your children the importance of continuously working to become better. If you have not ever set goals, today is the perfect day to get busy dreaming and then put your plan to reach your dreams down on paper! Time to go GET IT!
I am rooting for you!
Cathy