With a new year just around the corner, you may be reflecting upon your experiences over the past year.

With a new year come New Year’s resolutions! We are all aware of this tradition and many of us have worked towards achieving our established resolution the following year. For others, reaching our goal may be a greater challenge. With a thoughtful approach, setting resolutions can be a fun and motivating way to start the new year with a fresh perspective. Setting goals as a family is a great way to connect and support one another.

Putting in time and effort to collaborate with your child in creating a New Year’s resolution is a great opportunity for individual and family growth and also provides a good activity for family bonding. Assisting your child in creating their resolution will help them to focus on an achievable and realistic goal.

 Here are some helpful tips to consider when creating resolutions as a family:

• Ensure goals are realistic and achievable
• Focusing on individuals strengths makes choosing a goal less intimidating
• State resolutions using positive language
• Everyone should find their resolution desirable—offer suggestions to family members but do not make decisions for them, the resolution must be important to them if they are to be successful
• Be specific with your resolutions—coming up with something too broad makes it difficult to measure your successes
• Schedule monthly family meetings to re-evaluate and praise everyone on their progress