Getting Started with Youth Goals for 2020

It's been a couple months now since we first heard about the new "Youth Guidebook" and goal plan that is replacing Personal Progress and Duty to God for young men and young women.  It's an exciting concept, but like so many of the new "home-centered" shifts the church is making, it can be hard to figure out how to help our youth get on board with it. 

  Now that I have recently been called back into young women, I've got double reason to try and figure out how to get the  youth excited about it.  I've got my own two kids and a whole class of brand new young women and I want them to feel the power of setting goals and striving to reach them.    As youth leaders I know we are not meant to be the overseers  of these goals, but I do feel like some inspiration and encouragement can go a long way to getting them engaged and excited about it.   

To begin with, I asked at the beginning of class on Sunday if anyone had any success stories with their goals that they wanted to share with the class. I plan on doing that every Sunday as part of the "counsel together" part of class that the class presidency member leads.  When I got blank stares and realized that not one of the ten girls in my class had even set any goals yet, I shared with them some feelings I'd had about one of my goals.   I then went over  the first few pages of the guidebook with them and encouraged them all to go through the DISCOVER and PLAN sections before we met for class again in 2 weeks.

We talked a little about what the DISCOVER section contained and I encouraged them to answer those questions for themselves (either on pages 18-19 of their guidebooks or in their journals) before moving on to the PLAN section. 

 

Here is the letter I sent to the YW in my class, as well as their parents:   (feel free to copy/paste/make it your own)

I'm hoping that by sending the letter during the week, we can try to  get the parents on board as well as generate a little enthusiasm when there's actually time for them to work on the goals.  The offered treat is bribery at its best and I think is absolutely appropriate as an occasional incentive! 

With my own kids I want to spend a little time discussing their plans with them in more detail and making vision boards together, but for the girls in my class, I feel like inviting them to include their parents was the best I could do.  We simply don't have enough time together as a class to spend a lot of time on it and the YW presidency I am working with keeps a pretty hands-off approach with this type of thing, so I'm not sure we'll ever do any activities with it.  

I was asked to do a presentation on the goals in  New Beginnings and hope to do some more enthusiasm building there....including hopefully getting the parents and older girls excited too!  

I plan to talk about Ether 12:27 and the idea that we can "make weak things become strengths" as we focus on overcoming and working on our weaknesses.  I also plan on using some of the quotes from the letter above and this FHE lesson on goal setting.    I love the quote from Johann Sebastian Bach about working hard.  I actually found that the quote differs slightly depending on where you find it, but the idea is powerful...

“I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed . . . equally well.”   Johann Sebastian Bach 

That's as far as my plan goes for now, but I hope that by consistently asking the girls about their goals in the "counsel together" part of YW each time we meet, that we can help them keep it fresh on their minds.  

So what are you doing in your families?  What about in your wards?  I'd love to hear your ideas!