Resolutions
or Goals for the New
Year
Being the start of the new
year in this relatively new
millennium we thought it would be a great idea to throw out some ideas about quol “quality of life”, resolutions and goal setting. In our family at
the beginning of very year we sit down and spend a couple of days looking at
what we want to do, where we want to go, who do we want to be in the year
ahead. This gives us all as a family a bit of a common picture for the
future ahead which provides a valuable bond to the way in which we live our
lives everyday.
Aspirations and hope is a
very part of human existence. Without this our very essence for existing is
based in the present and would not provide us with the motivation and desire
to achieve certain things or to move in a particular direction. The good
news is that when we compile our goals as a family we can define them in
terms of today - the present as well as the future. In order to strike the
QUOL that you desire, it is important to obtain a balance in both of these
areas.
To achieve your QUOL it is
something that satisfies your requirements in the present as well as for the
future. Many decisions in families are based around finance and the
acquisition of material belongings. There is no doubt that this will form
part of what is needed for your QUOL both in the present and for the future.
It is, however, important that an ecology check is carried out from the
family's point of view to ensure that one aspect of our lives does not
govern and dictate the way in which we lead our lives. Balance is crucial in
order for true success to be achieved.
As a family unit it is
important to sit down and compile a list of goals. This should include goals
which are immediate, short term and long term. When carrying out this
exercise do not focus on the how something is going to be achieved, that is
not important at this point. Compile the list of goals on the basis that
everything and anything is possible. In this way you are not imposing
existing constraints and limitations and will truly develop what you family
wants. This list can include things to learn and know, things to do, things
to have and get or simply things to be as a family unit. In fact it is quite
likely it will consist of items in all of these categories - which in fact
are related to one another. An
example may be a family that would like to grow more of their own vegetables
in their backyard vegie patch. This could go something like this:
We would like to learn more
about how to grow our own vegetables and make some of our own food - This is
something to learn and know.
In order to do this you
take classes, spend some time with other people who will provide you with
some of the skills and knowledge required. This is something to do.
By growing your own
vegetables your will have the joy of eating something that your family
produced and have a quality of food second to none. - This is something to have
and get.
Through building up this
area of expertise and interest over time it may be possible to produce most
of your own vegetables – self sufficient in this part of your life. This
is something to be.
So as you can see many of
our goals are related and link to other goals. What this exercise above
illustrates is an important part of setting goals. It is important to have
extreme clarity about your goals and to be specific, however it is also of
paramount importance to understand the reasons as to why you should achieve
these goals. By categorising your goals into one of the four categories
above it enables you to outline outcomes and reasons for achieving these
outcomes.
Once your family has
compiled a combined list of goals, it is important then to carry out an
ecological check on these goals. This takes place from two different
aspects. Firstly by considering the values, which are most important to your
family. If you are unclear about what your common values are and how they
are ranked then this might be a good time to spend on thinking about this.
Do any of the goals conflict with your values? It is important that
your goals are indeed congruent with the values you have defined as
important. If not then you may achieve your goals but the success that you
have may indeed be very different from the one which you expected.
The other consideration
with these goals is from the varying viewpoints of all members in your
family. This will ensure that assumptions are not being made about what
other members want or what is important to them. It is vital that these
issues are discussed. If this does not occur the end result could be the
achieving of a goal that only one person in the family viewed as important -
while at the same time impacting on other areas of the family.
In my life my own quality
of life is interwoven and totally linked to the quol of my husband and family.
So each new year we spend the time to define what is important to us both as
individuals but also as a family. Through sharing our aspirations and hopes
for the future we live each day with a common purpose and are able to get
closer to the type of quol that our families deserve.
By Robyn Antonelli,
quolkids.com
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