THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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Best Year Ever

Last year my family started using the phrase “best year ever” to drive our planning going into the school year.

Best Year Ever was mostly used in conversation as a questions, something like “what else do we need to do to make it your best year ever?”.

This question, along with the discussions that occurred, allowed my kids to start feeling part of the planning process for their year, and forced them to start thinking about, visualizing, and making plans for the future.

The results?

Everyone had their best year ever!

Because they’re growing and developing, and their parents are fortunate enough to provide consistent and supportive lives for them, they likely would have had the best year ever regardless of planning, but I’m confident this process yielded better results.

Additionally there were other benefits in starting this process:

1. They were introduced to vision setting, along with breaking their year down into manageable chunks with accompanying goals.

2. They were forced to think about their lives and upcoming year holistically for the first time.

3. They became part of an ongoing conversation throughout the school year, that allowed us to be mostly proactive with their lives.

4. They got a sense of agency over their lives

My personal planning process has improved greatly over the past year, and so has mine with them.

Here’s v2 of the “Best Year Ever” planning process for the Jones kids:

1. Personal VTO - I ask them to complete and update their personal Vision/Traction Organizer each quarter. They’re not that into this to be honest so I only force them to spend 20 minutes or so on it. I believe with consistency they’ll learn to love it like I have.

2. 1:1 days once a quarter - Inspired by the book “The Family Board Meeting”, I schedule one half-day per kid where we do whatever they want, with no technology. This is new for me and I’m a fan of the structure and simplicity of this plan. While I spend lots of time with all my kids, it’s hard to ensure quality 1:1 time with all of them on a consistent basis

3. Environmental update - Part of the “Best Year Ever” is having the tools, and space to have your best year ever. For my kids this involves updates to their rooms that allow them to enjoy the space, have high quality sleep, do homework comfortably. We also ensured their primary transportation - their bikes - were tuned up and had everything they need to use them regularly and safely

4. Updating rules & regulations - My oldest kids are going into high school, and Baby Alex is going into 5th grade and this will be his first year alone at school. Updated rules around curfews, transportation, emergencies, are all now a thing. We also have a continuous technology review process that their mom and I review and discuss weekly.

5. Personal finances - This is in process and in development for me. They get an allowance, and also are starting to earn money doing different activities (helping me on my business stuff, dog walking, babysitting, working at the ballet studio, raking leaves, etc). Instead of just letting them figure it all out on their own - my plan is to bring them into their overall savings and investment plan, that includes being employed by me, and learning how money flows into their 529 accounts and Roth IRAs. My goal is that by the time they all go to college they have a strong knowledge of the basics of personal finance.

Getting going with all this stuff simply required starting with the question “how can we make this year the best year ever?”

Overlaying and adding some structure has come steadily, and I always try to keep things simple and doable for them and me.

Since school starts next week today is a big organization and supply day. As far as I know all kids have everything they need to have the best year ever.

Only thing left to do is find a giant squishmellow for alex to sleep on, and some new Nike’s at the outlet store.

Talk to you next week,

Mike

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