Family Goals for the New Year!

You are never too old to set another goal or dream another dream! – C.S Lewis

Welcome 2017!!

With this fresh start, we all breath in the excitement of a new beginning and look forward to 12 new chapters & 365 new chances.

Perhaps some of the most important resolutions you can make this year, will improve the quality of the time you spend with your family.

Here are 8 New Year’s goals for you and your family adapted from the findings after several years of research at universities and studying hundreds of families over a few decades. These practises have proved to improve the relations between couples, children, parents, siblings. Pick 1, 2, or all of these New Year’s resolutions and make 2017 the best year yet!

INVEST IN THE 'FIVE MAGIC' HOURS

Research displays that in most happy and long-lasting marriages, couples spend at least 5 hours a week of quality time together. It is important to make time for both emotional as well as physical intimacy. You could plan a date night each week. Have meaningful conversation. Take a stroll together. It’s important to disconnect yourself from the rest of the world and connect with each other at least for a couple of hours each week. Some of the most important moments you can take time for are right before leaving for the day and when you come together again at the end of the day. However, you and your spouse plan to do it, be sure to invest in the 5 magic hours

CREATE A FAMILY RITUAL

Family rituals or traditions have the power to give you a sense of identity, one-ness, and strength. For some families, it could be the way they plan their birthdays or anniversaries or holidays and annual celebration. For some it can be what you do Saturday evenings or could be a board game night every other week or may be a special Sunday lunch that they family makes together. Use the new year as an excuse to decide and practise a tradition that your family looks forward to.

DATES WITH INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY

While it is important that the whole family spends time together, it is equally important that each member of the family spends some time with the other individually. This further strengthens the bond between them and gives you something to anticipate. It need not be fancy. It can very well be as simply as a trip to the grocery store with your daughter / son or a chat over coffee with your mom. A movie with your brother or a long drive with your husband. Give yourself the chance to spend some quality time and open up to the other.

START YOUR DAYS RIGHT 

In most families, the start of the day is the most chaotic where everyone is aiming at dressing up and getting out of the door. It is important to make your mornings more meaningful as that defines the rest of your day. Setting a good tone to the start of every day is one of the best resolutions a family can make. It just takes a little mindfulness, planning your day the night before and waking up just 30 minutes before your usual time. Even if time is short, pause, hug, smile, try to be helpful and kind. Starting well means children and parents alike can carry that feeling through the rest of the day.

PRACTISE GRATITUDE

Adopting a “gratitude practice” has proven to correlate positively with mental health as well as other aspects of health as well. Writing down or simply sharing and being vocal about things you are grateful for makes you feel more optimistic and better about your lives. This lets you appreciate the smaller things in life and be contended. This 2017, consider making a gratitude practise a family New Year’s resolutions, either by keeping gratitude journals or sharing things everyone is grateful for at bedtime each night.

DISCONNECT TECHNOLOGY 

One of the biggest barriers that eats up more than 75% of your personal time around family is our constant state of connection to technology. There can be no better time to make a change on this front. Choose to remove tech from the bedrooms at night. Create a family docking station within your home where everyone can plug in overnight. It keeps everything organised, charged and out of the bedrooms. The new year is also a good period to establish other new boundaries around tech use, where kids and grown-ups alike leave their devices in another room during dinner or during family time.

GET OUTDOOR 

As the grown-ups in the household, we can get so bogged down in the never-ending list of tasks on our plates that we lose touch with our playful sides. This year, give yourself permission to leave the dishes in the sink a little so there’s time to play silly board games with the kids or dust off your old tap-dancing shoes. Mom of two and parenting blogger Alison Tedford says her family’s resolution this year is simple: “Find more joy.” To them that means “more outdoor activities, buying a rec center pass, taking cooking lessons together, monthly family movie dates, weekly adult dates and weekly arts and crafts time,” she says.

KICK A HABIT 

Everyone has a habit we have been trying to kick off. Whatever habit you need to break, no matter how difficult it seems, know that it can be achieved. You can achieve almost anything with the right amount of willpower, support from the people in your life, and a realistic plan of action. Use this opportunity and think of that 1 thing you want to let go. Doing this together with the family, keeps you mindful of it and support from the family members goes a long way.