20 - Now, Change Your Family's Trajectory

Now that you've hopefully had a chance to set some life-giving family goals together, this episode is all about STAYING THE COURSE. Sometimes we feel like we've accomplished something just because we wrote it down! That's a foundational step, but good intentions won't get us very far. We need to make sure we have a plan to stick with our goals, and accountability along the way, along with celebrations as we achieve them. In all things, let's remember that we don't set family goals to earn God's favor -- if you're in Christ, He has already given you a right standing before Him through the blood of Jesus Christ -- but we set these goals IN RESPONSE to what He has already done, out of a heart filled with gratitude. Join us as we explore how we can persevere in accomplishing what He's given us to do for our families -- and communities.

Now that you've hopefully had a chance to set some life-giving family goals together, this episode is all about STAYING THE COURSE. Sometimes we feel like we've accomplished something just because we wrote it down! That's a foundational step, but good intentions won't get us very far. We need to make sure we have a plan to stick with our goals, and accountability along the way, along with celebrations as we achieve them. In all things, let's remember that we don't set family goals to earn God's favor -- if you're in Christ, He has already given you a right standing before Him through the blood of Jesus Christ -- but we set these goals IN RESPONSE to what He has already done, out of a heart filled with gratitude.

Join us as we explore how we can persevere in accomplishing what He's given us to do for our families -- and communities.

A few points we cover in this episode:

Lessons from the evaluation process:
- Involving the kids in evaluating and goal setting for themselves increased their buy-in and we’ve already seen them taking ownership of their goals
- Taking the time to evaluate our family in this way helped us see things that would have been difficult to see otherwise.
- There were some encouraging things that we may not have realized had we not taken the time to evaluate them.
Steven Covey - "begin with the end in mind"
Three critical things to keep in mind to stay the course:
- Consider what you'll remove (or cut back on) in order to create time for your priorities. Questions you may ask:
  - What things are your family doing that are most satisfying, fulfilling and you feel strongest about keeping?
  - What’s draining your energy right now? How could you reduce or eliminate this?
  - What do you do for leisure and are these activities TRULY restful and rejuvenating or just passing the time and entertaining?
  - Are there some inefficiencies you could shore up?
  - Can you use driving time better?
  - Are there other families you could live in community with better and help each other to reduce the loads of both families?
  - Are there ways your kids could step up and help more around the home?
- Break your goals down into smaller tasks.
- Build in accountability.

Check out our free download called Family Evaluation & Goal Setting (template): https://strategicfamilies.com/resources/

Scriptures referenced:

Ephesians 5:16
Isaiah 40:28-31
John 4

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