There’s a joke that says the most successful business in the world would be one that is a gym the first two weeks in January and a donut shop the rest of the year. That’s the trouble with New Year’s resolutions: we all start out with good intentions, but quickly lose our interest and ability to keep up.
The Problem with Resolutions
Too often, the problem with resolutions is that we try to take on the world. “I’m going to lose twenty pounds, keep my finances in complete order, and learn to speak Portuguese by summer.” Does that sound familiar? Then we try to start, and life gets in the way, and we fail.
In order to succeed, we have to change how we begin. Like all goal-setting, resolutions need to be specific and actionable. They need to be chunked in bite-sized pieces that allow us to achieve them and have proof of that forward motion.
How to Start Making Resolutions
Goal Setting from Daily Living Skills series offers detailed information on how to set and keep goals. But, you can help your students begin the process of goal setting by keying in on the goals that motivate them.
Here’s how to use this free lesson.
Talk to students about resolutions. Define what they are. Let students relate stories about past successes and failures with resolutions.
Introduce the page “Motivation.” Guide students to discuss times when they were very motivated by a goal. How did that feel? How did it help them achieve that goal? Then discuss times when they weren’t motivated or tried to do something because someone else wanted them to. How did that turn out?
Provide “Motivation Worksheet.” Allow students to brainstorm ideas about goals they would like to achieve. Have them rate their passion for the goal on the 1-5 scale.
Choose a goal. We know it’s best to have one new goal at a time. Help students to choose the goal that will best move their lives forward by asking—how does this goal move you forward? Is there something (some goal) you must accomplish first in order to achieve this goal?
Build on this lesson by using the rest of the goal-setting lessons available in Goal Setting from the Daily Living Series.
Join my Newsletter email list. This month’s free lesson includes a “My Success Calendar” and lesson plan to help students track their progress on monthly goals. Use a new calendar each month to help students focus on one simple goal and make it automatic by month’s end. Sign up at susan.traugh@gmail.com.
For More Information
Like all books in the series, Goal Setting from Daily Living Skills is written on a 3rd/4th grade level with airy pages and bullet-point information and honoring teen’s maturity and sensibilities while meeting SCANS goals, Indicator 13 rules and federal transition mandates. To find Goal Setting, go here.
You can watch a professional development video on how to teach goal setting and get PD credit by visiting Responsive Learning and clicking on my video lesson on this topic here. (This video is due to release 1/24.)
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