Boy do I love New Years! It is so refreshing and invigorating to have a clean slate and to focus on making positive changes by setting new goals.

I have been very busy the last few days updating my personal and professional goals. I want to thank Gretchen Rubin for providing the best guidance on goal setting in her book The Happiness Project. Ever since I read it, I have been outlining my goals yearly, and monthly, to stay on track. It was so fun to review my goals from 2015. I was actually able to check off most of them!

I find goal setting extremely helpful for giving me a happiness boost. The simple act of writing down what I hope to accomplish in the coming year provides a major sense of hope, excitement, and motivation. I have been wondering how we can pass along this annual ritual to our children so that they, too, can benefit. My New Years resolution is to teach my children how to identify effective, realistic goals so they can be the best person they can be!

Set Goals With Your Children

I have never sat down and worked on goal setting with my children, but this is the week I am challenging myself to attempt it with my seven year old son and three year old daughter. I am thrilled by all the helpful resources available and can’t wait to try them out and report back on how successful the session was. I hope that we can share in this challenge together and you will also tackle some goal setting with your children in the coming weeks.

Helpful Resources

Before you get started, check out this interview with Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine editor Angela Ardolino about helping your kids make New Years resolutions. She runs us through the basics from the benefits of goal setting to ideas for family resolutions to providing the necessary support for our children during this process.

To get started, here are a few free simple goal setting sheets that you can easily download and print.

• New Years Resolution Printable from Uncommon Designs
• My Goals Sheet from Minds in Bloom
• Three Goal Setting Worksheets from About.com
• The Best Year Reflection and Goal Setting Worksheet from Moritz Fine Designs
• When I Grow Up Activity Sheet from icankids.com–great for young children

The process for setting goals will depend on your child’s age. We will explore helpful tips for achieving the best goal setting with your children this month. We will also look at the connection between goals and happiness. So, stay tuned!

Have you completed New Years resolutions with your children? How did it go? What are some of their goals?