Before we get started, I wanted to share some of the reasons why Jason and I decided to add couples goal setting to our yearly planning:

• Setting aside time away from the house, pets, kids, chores etc. gives you quality time to connect and share things that are important to you. For us, life is busy and I’m always on the go. Taking time to evaluate our collective goals away from the day to day chaos helped realign us on the overall mission and vision for our life together.
• Setting collective goals gives you the opportunity to work towards something together and strengthen your relationship. The worksheet we used gave us space to ideate individually but then choose our goals together. We both have to pull our weight in order to achieve our goals so we both have skin in the game and don’t want to let the other person down.  
• Who is a better accountability buddy than the one you share a roof with? Making sure your partner is on board and supportive for your individual goals is an effective way to reach your goals. For example, we both have eating healthier on our individual and couples goals. It would be really tough for me to eat better if Jason is constantly suggesting we get Five Guys for dinner…who can say no to Five Guys? Certainly not me!

If you’re ready to incorporate partner goal setting into your relationship here would be my recommendations:

• Set aside time dedicated to planning and stick to it. We delayed ours a couple times but knew it was important to us so we put it on the calendar and made it happen.
• Prepare for the session individually in advance. Step 1 and 2 of the worksheet we followed are designed to be done independently. I would recommend doing them the day before your scheduled couples planning. We completed all steps in one sitting and it was a bit too cumbersome.
• Get out of the house and make this fun. Use this as an excuse for a date night, go to a coffee shop or even a bar. We stayed home and it felt a little more like a chore than a fun exercise that we enjoy doing together. 
• Refresh on writing S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reasonable, Timely. All our individual and collaborative goals had specific metrics, steps and dates tied to them. If you leave it open ended it’s likely to not happen. 
• Revisit it monthly. Our plan is to do a monthly date night so we can keep this fun and fresh in our minds. Our goals may change over time, but we are committed to working on things together and supporting each other.

Hopefully this inspires you to add something new to your New Year traditions. You can find the link to the couples goal planning sheet we used and more detailed instructions here. 

How do you and your partner get ready for an epic year? Would love to hear what New Year rituals you share in your family!

Lindsay Fricks, Helping you, your family and friends Live and Love in Arizona

Note: I have no affiliation to the site that created this document. All rights and credits are owned by ofthehearth.com