Happy New Year! 2014 was a year of finding peace for my family – adjusting to living in a new place and learning to make a new career for Mike work for our family. For 2015, I have something a little more fun planned as my word of the year:
In 2015, I want to focus on the energy, resilience, and fun that the word bounce brings to mind – particularly when paired with bouncing balls. I want this to be a year where my family thrives.
Read about my other words of the year:
- 2015 Word of the Year
- 2016 Word of the Year
- 2017 Word of the Year
- 2018 Word of the Year
- 2019 Word of the Year
- 2020 Word of the Year
- 2021 Word of the Year
- 2022 Word of the Year
- 2023 Word of the Year
We spent December quietly, building emotional and physical reserves, and I feel like we are greeting the new year with renewed energy. To help maintain this focus, I am swapping over from themes to character traits that I want our family to work on in 2015.
Setting Goals Month by Month in 2015: Building Character Traits
In 2015, my focus will be on these four character traits:
- Thankful: This is really just a new name for my gratitude theme, but one that is a bit more accessible for my children.
- Curious: Because education can lead people to focus on academic learning, and there are a lot of different ways to learn, but you won’t learn if you aren’t curious.
- Helpful: A more child-accessible version of my responsibility theme.
- Kind: Kindness is a very important theme in our home. This is partially a more child-friendly version of last year’s responsibility theme, but also more since it means focusing on ways to make our world a kinder, gentler place.
The changes are partially created because, after setting goals on my own for years, I think that Emma, Johnny, and Lily are all ready to start focusing on goals on a very basic level. I don’t know if their goals will show up on this blog (that is up to them – they always have a say about what goes on the blog and what stays in our home), but it is an activity we will be doing as a family every month. Today they are using this New Years printable I made to set an overarching theme for their year – either a word (as I have done) or something more concrete. The choice is up to them.
Setting Goals for January 2015
Here are my goals for January – because I get things done one month at a time:
- Continue organizing and de-cluttering our home – Mike and I have both been working on that during this break. Character traits: helpful and thankful
- Continue working on Johnny’s school situation. Character traits: curious and helpful
- Get thank you letters written for Johnny’s birthday party and child-written letters to teachers (these were both meant to happen in December and didn’t). Themes: thankful and kind
- Make plans for Emma’s birthday party in February and get invitations out. Character traits: thankful
Are you choosing a word for 2015? Which one? Will you join us in setting monthly goals in 2015?
Share comments and feedback below, on my Facebook page, or by tagging me on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to receive book recommendations, crafts, activities, and parenting tips in your inbox every week.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I love your word for 2015! I also love that you are focusing on character traits. My word is change. I’m ready for it!
I hope you get the change you are looking for!
What a fun word for 2015. I want to pick a fun one now too!!! but I need to think about it. My primary goal is to spend quality time with my kids and husband, sounds cliche but it is what I cherish most.
That is a wonderful goal!
Oops, I read this, but I don’t think I actually ever commented….. I love your goals and plans for the year, bounce is such a great word.
I ended up not choosing a word for this year, just some big huge goals.
Thanks, Ticia! Good luck with all of your goals!
I love your goals breakdown. I hope to achieve something similar with my word Growth, I find I am more successful when I can cross items off of a list.
Thank you for linking up to the New Year Resolutions & Goals #linkup. I shared your post on StumbleUpon and Pinterest!
Thank you for sharing my post!
I think our word for this year will be “Peace”. We all need peace in our hearts and homes in order to counter the chaos in the world. I enjoyed your post and learning more about what you plan to do in January. I hope you achieve them all. Thanks for your post.
Peace was our word for last year, and it was a wonderful focus to have for the year.
This is my first year setting myself goals and i m relishing the challenge. If i were to choose one word to sum up my overall goal for the year it would be FOCUS. Last year i wasted too much time flitting from one thing to another without ever really finishing anything properly, so this year i need to get my focus back.
Your word, “bounce,” makes me smile! Very fun, and I love the energy in it, too.
I’ve never chosen a word for the year before, but I’ve just finished going through 2014 and thinking about dreams and goals for 2015. As I read your post, a word pops to mind for my upcoming year: “beautiful.” I’m coming out of a tumultuous time with my dad dying suddenly, my whole family converting to Catholicism, and then recovering from an unplanned caesarean with my fifth child. In 2015 I hope to move out of survival mode and begin thriving as we add in a few of the ‘extras’ that make life more beautiful.
You have chosen a beautiful word for 2015! I hope 2015 can be a thriving year for both of our families!
Happy New Year! I like your goals for this year very much. We also picked a word for the year is “Move”. Not geographically, but exercise more and, hopefully, move to a different job.
That is a great word! I hope you find a job you love in 2015.