Your family’s wellness is dependent on where your family focus lies. This is a great time to think about how to set and accomplish goals that will lead to a better sense of wellness for your family members. This guide will help you set family goals to focus on in the new year.

Small Steps Over Time Leads to Wellness

Instead of making drastic changes to your family’s diet or creating rigorous exercise routines, aim to make small, gradual changes. Assess how things are going every week and adjust, based on progress and changes in your family’s circumstances. This method of change will be more sustainable in the long run and lead to better wellness. For example, you might add one heathy food each week, letting each person choose a new food in a rotating fashion.

Examples of drastic plans you may want to avoid:

• A drastic plan for improving your family’s nutrition would be to do a whole pantry purge of all junk food. That could inspire mutiny from family members. Instead of that, how about purchasing a healthier version of a food the next time you run out? Of course, if there are physical ailments that may require a more stringent plan of action, you will need to get family buy in based on what the motivating factor is. A family meeting would be important in this situation.
• A drastic plan to increase your family’s movement would be to act like the family has enrolled in a military bootcamp, complete with whistles and calisthenics. Instead, why don’t your family take a morning walk, from five to 15 minutes in length. The gradual changes will be more enjoyable and sustainable.

How to Set Goals

Find your why– what motivates your members? WHY should your family be making the goal? Be sure to talk with your family about the benefits of moving bodies, eating well, getting enough sleep, or any other goal you would like to work on in the next week, month, or year.

Break the goal into smaller steps– what is the first step you can manage? For example, if your goal is to get your family to exercise more, you might start by taking walks together after dinner. A month or two later, you might add a short home workout two or three afternoons a week. In six months, you could try adding other activities like hiking or bike riding on the weekend.

Some sample family goal examples to consider:

• Move your body
• Eat the rainbow
• Get enough sleep

Decide when in your family’s busy schedules, you will work on a goal. Put it on the family calendar where everyone sees it.

How to Achieve Your Goals Consistently

Make your environment work for you. Set your family to succeed.

• Try habit stacking- what are you already doing that you can build upon? If your family already goes for an after dinner walk, could you take a minute to stretch before setting off?
• Keep it simple. Focus on one goal at a time. Eliminate options and don’t multitask.
• Have a visual reminder of your goals.
• Measure your goals.

The information in this guide will help you and your family set goals to focus on in the new year. Remember to choose one goal and start small, so you will be successful.

Action

If you found this guide helpful and are looking for more ideas on how to set goals that lead to wellness, please feel free to browse the blog posts listed below and then share with others who could benefit from setting goals for personal or family wellness.

• Blog 176 Setting Goals for Fall https://lavenderpathwellness.com/2022/09/01/blog-176-setting-goals-for-fall/
• Blog 133 Meeting Financial Goals Can Improve Health https://lavenderpathwellness.com/2020/02/04/blog-133-meeting-financial-goals-can-improve-health/
• Blog 50 Set Nutrition Goals https://lavenderpathwellness.com/2018/01/08/blog-50-set-nutrition-goals/
• Blog 49 Set Goals for 2018 https://lavenderpathwellness.com/2018/01/01/blog-49-how-to-reflect-and-set-goals-for-2018/