We run a family goal-making process each year and find that it’s such a powerful motivator. The entire family participates, but I’m triggered to write this today because our two oldest kids just knocked off three goals this weekend.
The oldest ran 10 times around the local field, achieving one of his “Body” goals.
The middle ran 5 times around the local field, and also rode his bike without training wheels for the first time, achieving two of his “Body” goals. Look at the video, watch to the end. Although he's showing off how to do figure eights, he also learns that turning too sharply is as good as slamming on the brakes.
Some other selected goal statuses this year:
Mom
Finished her Master's in Educational Psychology
Already achieved her 1000 visitors per day on her web site Nucleus Learning. We will be combining Perfecting Parenthood and Nucleus Learning, keeping both brands. We are also developing products that will help parents teach children. My wife is a professional high school math and science teacher as well as being a Master of Educational Psychology -- there are definitely simple things that could help parents and a lot of "bad" practices and advice out there.
She still needs to run 10K. Since our baby is due yesterday, this will have to happen in winter.
She still needs to sell the remainder of her self-published book: "The First Book of Hexa Trex"
Dad
I need to get down to 175lbs! To be honest, I'd forgotten about this goal. I'm actually at 203 lbs right now, which explains why the pants are tight. I'de better start on this one in earnest! This is the first year in 5 or 6 that I haven't run a marathon so I've totally missed out on the benefits of training.
Went on 3 family camping trips this summer
Up until August was on track for making $1,500 per month from the stock market, but August brought me below by a hair. Sept will bring me back I'm sure.
I have a fictional story in the works that I will have to publish this year.
I got a job with a better work-life balance than the one I was at. Cut my commute time by an hour a day and my work hours by another hour. I would really like to get into contracting instead of employment.
Get 1000 visitors per day on Perfecting Parenthood: This is far from being accomplished and I'm around 100 during the peaks with the odd spike that is much higher. I find that I don't have the time to publish and promote enough, although I've tried to make some friends online and design a decent site. There are some very nice and intelligent parenting bloggers out there!
Oldest (7 years old)
Read The Mariah Delany Lending Library Disaster. He's done chapter 5, about 1/3rd of the way through. This book is a young-adult from my childhood about a grade 6 girl who starts crazy businesses, including a library lending out her parents books.
Learn to ride a geared bike: Done. I picked one up for him at a goodwill store for $20 and we fixed it up. He's getting very good.
He needed to pass two swimming levels: Done!
Learn long multiplication and long division: Multiplication is done, long division is being worked on. He just started grade 2 last week in the French immersion school. Yesterday they learned words that start with "B" and had to write one sentence about a picture. I told him that if he's learning "B" in school and writing 5 words, but long division and reading chapter books at home then he has to ask the teacher to move him up or we'll take him to a new school. Maybe it's because the other kids don't know French yet, but too bad. My boy can't waste months on them.
He wanted to build a robot hand with Dad. We haven't done this yet. We built a little halloween mask last year with lights for eyes, so we wanted to up the game this year. To bad all the robotics stuff has been packed up for months as we moved across the country. We have to get it out!
He wanted to help teach the youngest how to talk, which he did. He also wanted to help the middle boy learn to read, which he hasn't done. I've been teaching the middle child. Not sure if it would be a good idea to get the oldest to teach the middle quite yet as he hasn't mastered reading himself.
And of course, he ran the ten laps (about 6 km or 3.7mi) .
Middle (5 years old)
Learn to read One Hungry Monster: It will have to be a different book because he has One Hungry Monster memorized. Regardless, he is learning to other books and can handle a page a night, even though it takes him about 15 minutes to read 10 lines.
He has achieved his goal of being able to add and subtract up to 20. Now we're fine tuning and improving speed and accuracy.
Robert also needed to pass two swimming levels but he failed because he reached the ceiling for his age. The next level requires him to be six years old. Not his fault, so it's a pass.
He ran 5 times around the school yard (3 km or almost 2 mi).
He was supposed to cook mom and dad breakfast in bed once per month. This hasn't happened, but he has prepared meals for us once or twice, and certainly helps a lot for the cooking. He will be a little chef.
He also wanted to play family board games at least once per week. We have stretches when we do this. In fact, we've developed our own board games as a family that we like to play.
Thats it! This is the first time we've looked bad on these goals in a while so it's good to see that many are still attainable and that many have been achieved.
How about you? Does your family make goals or resolutions? How are you doing?
Comments
I love this post because I
I love this post because I love that your family makes goals. It's so true that if you don;t make goals you will never reach them. What a great habit to insitll in your children and what a good example you and your wife are setting. As for the 1000 views a day, it will happen. Just give it time and keep writing the great quality content that you are.:)
Thanks for the encouragement.
Thanks for the encouragement. Making goals is awesome. I was dumbfounded a long time ago when I read something, I don't remember where anymore, about someone who wrote down their goals and then took action. Just that act alone let the person accomplish several goals within a few days. These were goals that had been sitting in the back of a mind, waiting, for a long time. List 'em and then get 'em done, people can accomplish more in a few minutes.
My wife and I try to do "one or two" things per day off our lists. It works like a charm.
I love all of your goals,
I love all of your goals, especially the five year old's goals to cook! I can't believe he's making an omelet in that pic -- I think I may have mastered that at 25 years old...certainly not at five!
Hehe, he did get a little
Hehe, he did get a little help :)
I loved this post and
I loved this post and congrats to all - and to your wife, wow! And you and your kids. (-:
I'd like to say we are a family w. goals - and we are - but we are so busy we don't have too much time to map them out, you know? We really should so we can pat ourselves on the back for them when we do get there, and learn why we didn't if we don't.
PS: How did you put the video into the blog and make it "go" while I read the post? I liked that trick.
You should try the goals! At
You should try the goals! At the very least you can measure progress on something of your own choosing instead of always getting credit card bills and report cards and bank statements measuring you :) Doesn't have to be super serious if you don't want. Even just "I will read a book a week" or something to get yourself used to the idea.
The video is an "Animated GIF". If you have movie making software see if it can export to that format. Then you can include it in the post just like any other picture, except it moves.
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