Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!
Audrey Hepburn
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#homesofvictory
Tag: achieve
It’s been six months since we launched Homes of Victory. We have been blown away by your support and would like to humbly thank each of you. We truly appreciate the time you take to read and absorb what we have to share.
As we are all about families – supporting and enabling you to create the home life you want – we can’t wait to continue this journey with you. If you have any topic you would like us to cover please let us know. Likewise if you would like to be a guest blogger please contact us. We would love to hear from you.
Until then, share Homes of Victory with your mates and let’s encourage each other to live in victory.
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blueprint strategy 3
Action plan
By now, you should have five or more goals written down, that you are both or all happy about and agreed upon. How do you feel? Excited? Daunted?
For those of you who are not planners, and setting goals seems so foreign, please do not feel that this is not for you. It is, as much as it is for a planner. The action plan that you will create, can be as detailed as you like, it can be at the forefront of all family decisions or not. It can be what you want it to be for your family situation. For us, we are half- half planners. We love to have goals ticking over in the background, while we get on with it and have fun along the way. At times we get really distracted and need to remind ourselves of the goals we set and why, but day to day, we are not dictated by our goals. We know what they are and how much of them we have achieved, but we still like to have an element of flexibility and improvisation.
To put everything in perspective, a strategic plan (which we call the family blueprint) gives you a place to record your vision, purpose and values (which is your family values statement), as well as your long-term goals (the goals you’ve written) and the action plans you’ll use to reach them (what we will now do).
As overwhelming as an action plan can sound, you will get your groove on, once you get started. We found the easiest thing to do, was ask a set of questions, write down our answers and then tweak it as we go along. We’ve added in the questions we asked to form our family action plan. For this we didn’t include our children, but if they have been involved in the process of developing goals or even your family values statement, it may be good to include them in some if not all of the action plan creation.
Activity: Answer the following questions according to each individual goal set.
- What: (The goal – as per family values list)
- When: (Time frame)
- Why: (motivations and how does it link to your family values statement)
- Actions required: Include when you plan to complete each task
- Measure of success: What criteria will be used, how will failure be dealt with
- Link to family budget: Estimated cost and savings plan
Creating an action plan will take time. Work through each goal at your own pace, work together to come up with an action plan for each one.
Once you’ve completed your action plan, take some time to let the goals and outcomes sink in.
Ask, is the plan as a whole realistic for your family?
What adjustments could I make, to ensure every goal is achieved?
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blueprint strategy 2
Goals
Once you have your finalised family values statement, the real heavy lift work begins. Now, is the time to start thinking about and writing goals that correlate to the sets of values created in blueprint foundations.
The categories looked at in blueprint foundations were:
* family values
*home environment
*business / career
* children
* finances
* future dreams
The family values list links to the family values statement or mission statement., as created in the activity in the strategy post. Later on, the future dreams list will be used to create a vision statement for the years ahead.
The lists of values for each of these categories home environment, business, children and finances will be used to develop goals that feed into the family 1- 3 year operational plan. .
Activity: Write 1 – 3 goals for each category.
How to write a goal
There are many ways to write goals and no one way to achieve them. If you are unfamiliar with writing goals, need a helping hand, here are a few different ways to set goal
SMART goals
SMART goals are based on actions that form the acronym: Is the goal Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound?
In our family we use SMART goals for more strategic type goals, we sit and write out SMART goals in great detail as these generally take longer to achieve.
An example of a SMART goal is:
We are going to save $X to go on a holiday in September. To do this we will save $X per week.
S: The who, what, when is listed. The where is not listed in this goal.
M: The goal of a holiday, and the amount to save is listed clearly.
A: The dollar amount is listed
R: This goal links to our family strategic goals – add in the category it is relevant to.
T: The goal is time bound as the end date is September
WOOP goals
Another form of goal writing, that is great when the whole family is included is WOOP. I have recently come across this method of goal writing. It is great as it can be parent led and has space for child input and ownership. This type of goal writing is great for ‘ team’ type goals that are not necessarily directional strategically but functional for family life. It may be about eating healthier food options, volunteering together, working on a family project – that kind of activity. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. It encourages the big picture dreams and then by looking at outcomes and obstacles – the specifics of the goal can be nutted out. The final step – the plan is the grand scheme of how to achieve the goal. It is also the time to take the obstacles listed and write against each one an ‘ if then’ plan to overcome the obstacles.
An example of a WOOP goal is:
W: We wish as a family we could hike for six kilometres (without the children whinging)- and enjoy it.
O: Increased fitness, ability to go on more hikes and find interesting places.
O: The youngest can’t walk that far, she decides not to…
P: Start building up fitness with shorter walks. Find ways to encourage the youngest to increase her stamina.
List:
The final example of setting a goal that I find really works for me in the busy of life is this list format of goal setting. I tend to use this for more base line goals and use this list as a reminder. I keep the monthly list on the inside of my pantry as that is where I see it the most. It’s a great reminder of what I set out to do each month, as the days fly by.
Here is an example of one of my lists:
This month __________________ I will
- Start/ Stop: organising birthday presents //
- Learn: How to cook ravioli from scratch
- Read: “and the mountains echoed” by Khaled Hosseini.
- Visit: Grandparents
- Organise: the linen cupboard and garage storage
- Improve: print photos for lounge room wall – update photos
Overall, it’s not about the method you use to write your goal, it’s the fact that you’ve set some goals that you believe are achievable for your family.
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blueprint strategy
part three of creating a family blueprint
Congratulations you’ve made it through the foundation building stages. Now for the real fun – the strategy and action plan, the part that makes the foundation essentially a reality.
The outcome for this set of activities is to creation a family mission statement with a set of outcomes, with identified measurable actions. Easy… ???
Home of Victory will step you through this, to create the final pieces of your family blueprint.
Strategy part one: Family Values Statement = Vision Statement
A mission statement is generally 1 – 2 sentences that sums up: what you do and who you do it for.
Activity: Take your final set of family values from blueprint foundations 1 – and start forming sentences around those words. This will take time to perfect, but it will happen. Let it sit for a period of time and make changes as you see fit.
When you have both finalised the family values statement, share it with your children if they are an appropriate age… ours were more than willing to ask questions and agree. Their involvement will encourage you all as a family to work towards a common goal and use this statement as a foundation for future decisions.
If you feel comfortable please share your family values statements – you never know what encouragement you can provide others.
Here is our family values statement. We started with the words, We see… As we are speaking into the future of what our family will become, as we are certainly not there yet.
We see a family that seeks to draw out the best from each other and in our community giving all the glory to God. We see a family that understands our imperfections and are willing to work through them together. We see a family that travels the world, learning and sharing with people from all over the planet. We see a family that impacts local and global communities to experience true joy, peace and health.
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In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Propel the positive
Don’t walk in my head with your dirty feet.
Leo Buscaglia, Living, Loving & Learning
I read this quote and it made me stop and me smile because of its truth. How often do we let the negative of what others say, walk right in and make themselves at home. Lounging on the couch in our minds, multiplying into more negative thoughts.
Instead, why don’t we start making a conscious effort to let our positive out into the world. Any negative comment can be flipped into a positive one. Be conscious of it, when you are speaking and connecting with others. You will never know the positive difference you can make in someone’s day.
Don’t fuel the negative – propel the positive.
Homes of Victory
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Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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obstacle course summary
Congratulations, you made it through the second part of creating a family blueprint. We hope you enjoyed the conversations and spending time doing so with the one you do life with. Did you find it interesting to learn about personality types, and figure out what the needs of your family are? How did you go putting your crisis management and stress management plan together?
What area did you find the most beneficial?
We would love to hear your feedback.
We found the who we are? section to be the most eye-opening. Even now, a few years after we decided to learn more about who we are, we are still learning more about each other’s personality. We have found ourselves talking often about this topic how our personality types clash and how they work together. We have been identifying more of our strengths and weaknesses – in order to learn how to compromise just a little more, in order to be more considerate and aware of each other. We must say, so far so good. We feel that we have grown closer together and have more knowledge and understanding of each other.
How do you feel since you’ve worked together on your obstacle course responses?
Did you use any of these conversation lead to big changes in your family?
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#homesofvictory
It always seems impossible until it is done
Nelson Mandela
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Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
We are basketball fans in our house, actually when I say we – I mean my husband is, and I grew up collecting basketball cards with my brother and loving the Charlotte Hornets purely because their jersey colours matched my netball uniform… Any way, the Lakers are a favourite team in our home and as the playoffs are in full swing in America, we thought it apt to quote perhaps one of the greatest players of his generation LeBron James.
always strive for greatness
LeBron James
At Homes of Victory, we couldn’t agree with this more. It’s not always about winning, or achieving, it’s about always striving – trying – making an effort. Whether your love of basketball like my husband or like myself – remember in life it is not always about winning but the process behind it – the effort – the thought behind every decision to grow and achieve.
What greatness are you striving for in your home? In your family?
What greatness are you striving for in life?
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communication summary
When pulling your communication plan together, remember it needs to be flexible and evolve according to the needs of your family. Communication is vital and powerful – it creates connection, it creates a sense of belonging and it can be the difference between feeling secure or not. It is not something that is static. It will take time to develop.
Over the coming months take some time to look back on all of the elements of a communication plan as below. Reassess how your family is going. Enjoy the wins and be encouraged by the learnings.
- Why we communicate
- What we communicate
- How we communicate and with who
- The methods we use to communicate different sets of information
- How often we communicate
The family landscape is always changing as kids and parents alike are always growing and changing – make sure your communication expectations align. Are you as parents demonstrating respect and language that you want your children to reflect? The children will copy you, whether you want them to or not.
Finally, in coming to a close on the communication plan, enjoy talking about and mapping out your communication plan. The value of this plan will come into play when the next conflict or stressful situation arises. It will become the backbone of agreement between family members on how to behave, that will day by day have a more positive and refreshing influence.
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Be the best you can be until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou
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The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.
Steven Furtick
Homes of Victory 