Scratch the Resolutions and Set some Goals!

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions every year? Do you find that by February, or even Jan 10th, you’ve given up? There’s a good reason why resolutions don’t work… A resolution is defined as a “formal expression of opinion or intention made.” It’s a wish - what you want to happen, how you want to be different, what you hope to accomplish in your life over the next year.

While it’s true that in order to change your life, you first have to decide that you are willing to change (make a resolution), but if you don’t have a plan behind that decision, you have no way of knowing how to get there, nor will you be able to measure whether or not you have reached your goal or even progressed.

This year, why not set goals? Real goals. Goals that matter. Goals are not just a wish, but they are backed by a plan. When you put a plan behind your wish, you can determine the steps necessary to reach your goal, and whether or not you achieved your goal.

Get out a pen & paper and start writing…
1. State your goal.
This is your resolution. This is what you want to change or hope to accomplish.

2. Determine your starting point.
If you don’t know where you are starting from, then where will you start from? If your goal is weight loss, you need to step on the scale. If your goal is debt freedom, you need to know how much debt you have. A guess will NOT work here. If you aren’t willing to make the effort to find out where you currently are, then you won’t be willing to make the effort to reach the goal either.

3. Set a date
What is the time frame in which you want to accomplish the goal? Many of the goals we set this time or year are annual goals, so most of our “dates” are Dec. 31st. However, if you want to go on vacation in June, your “date” should be prior to June.

4. Divide your goal up and decide what you need to do TODAY.
If you want to lose 50 pounds by Dec. 31st…that’s almost 1 pound per week…that’s 1/7 of a pound per day. Once you have a specific (daily) goal, you can hold yourself accountable for each choice you make…to exercise or not to exercise…to eat the cookie or have an apple instead. Daily goals are much easier to focus on because you know what you need to do at every choice to get there. And if you blow it today, you get to start over tomorrow!

One of mine & Nathan’s favorite date nights of the year is our January date. We review our goals from the previous year and see how we did. We don’t ever reach all of our goals, but we reach some and we always progress! Then we talk about our dreams and get to set new goals for the new year. (BTW – one of our goals every year is date night…when we don’t make it a priority, we forget to date each other).

What are your dreams? Where do you hope to be next year? What can you accomplish? Why not set some real goals? Why not spend the energy to figure out how you can reach the goals? Why not you? Why not now? Wouldn’t you like to look back next December and see the progress you’ve made? You really can change your life, stop making excuses and start today!

Shared from thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com Jan 2, 2013
http://thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com/2013/01/scratch-resolutions-and-set-goals.html

Why don’t we do Santa? Well, since you asked…

First, let me encourage you to not take offense at what I’m about to say. We don’t judge you if you don’t agree or have a different view point, as most people don’t agree with us. However, these are OUR convictions, and for that, we will not apologize.

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ…We believe that Santa is a distraction from the true meaning of Christmas. For example, when you offer a child the choice of interest between a bright red fat man with flying reindeer who gives them shiny toys vs. a humble baby, the obvious choice is Santa. We do however, tell them about the real person of “Santa” – about his generosity and giving to those less fortunate.

Next, the truth is…Santa is not real. Nor is the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Shrek, Tinkerbell, or Captain America. At the end of the day, if I tell my child that Santa (or Spiderman) is real and he is not, I have not told the truth. We hold integrity VERY highly in our family and believe that agreeing to participate in this fantasy, does not line up with our values.

Personally, as a child, I can remember having friends that get more than me from Santa, specifically friends who behaved worse than me.  I can remember wondering what was wrong with me...after all, wasn't GOOD behavior what got Santa to come?  While this is obviously a selfish reason, I can tell you that it did not help my self-esteem, even as a little girl…  And anyway, isn't the unique thing about a gift the fact that it isn't earned, that it's given?

Further, we believe that the idea of Santa furthers the extreme commercialism and entitlement mentality in our culture. Kids write letters to Santa – who often brings the biggest gift – and this is what they look forward to at CHRISTmas…the gifts they get…getting what they want. Not only does Santa easily appear to kids as more exciting than the fact the the God of the universe left heaven to be born into this world so that He could save us, but Santa easily becomes more exciting than giving, serving, and being with family.

So, we aren’t crazy…we may be unconventional, but we are ok with that! We firmly believe that our job as parents is to empower our children and to instill them with the values and qualities that we believe are important – and the bottom line is…Santa doesn’t line up with or fit into our value system.

Merry Christmas!


Shared from thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com  Nov, 27, 2012
http://thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html