• Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission and Vision
    • The Youth Workin’ It Team
      • Shae Pepper, Managing Director
      • Stephen Pepper, Operations Director
    • Recommendations for the Youth Workin’ It Team
  • Youth Work Resources
    • How To Plan A Youth Retreat Book
    • 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas
  • Contact Us

Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

  • Youth Group Games
  • Session Plans
  • Fundraisers
  • Youth Retreats
  • Life Skills
  • Interview Skills
  • Scavenger Hunts
  • Would You Rather Questions
  • Program Administration
  • Policies & Procedures
  • Youth Participation
  • Group Agreement

New Year’s Resolutions For Teenagers……With A Twist

December 20, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

New Year's Resolutions For TeenagersIt’s almost Christmas, which means it’s almost the New Year, which means it’s time to start thinking of resolutions! Today’s youth group activity is therefore a session idea on New Year’s resolutions for teenagers…..but with a twist.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve tended to have a negative view of setting resolutions for 1 January, as they always seem to be based on depriving yourself – like you’re committing to a 365 day Lent period!

  • I’m not going to watch as much TV
  • I’m not going to eat chocolate
  • I’m not going to play video games as much
  • Etc, etc

Instead of getting your teenagers to commit to things that they won’t do, why not get them to commit to things they will do in this coming year?

Finish Year

I’ve actually stolen this idea from Jon Acuff, as at the end of last year he challenged the readers of his blog to take part in Finish Year. This is where they committed to completing various different projects or challenges throughout the year.

For example, Jon’s list was:

  1. From January 1 – February 11, I am going to finish preparing for the next Quitter Conference and make it an awesome experience for everyone who attends. (This is a big part of my job and thus requires big focus!)
  2. I am going to finish reading 12 non-fiction books this year. One per month.
  3. I am going to finish running the Nashville half marathon Saturday, April 28th in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  4. I am going to finish writing a new book in 2012.
  5. I am going to finish a box of thank you cards this year as a sign of my gratefulness.
  6. I am going to finish handwriting out the entire book of Proverbs in a moleskine notebook.

So sit down with the teenagers in your youth group and have them come up with their own New Year’s Resolutions in a Finish Year style. As you may have noticed above, all the commitments on the list begin with “I am going to finish….”, so make sure the young people’s start each of the items on their list in that way.

Set Teenagers Up For Success

One of the best things about this activity is that it sets teenagers up to succeed rather than fail. With normal New Year’s resolutions, people make it a few weeks (or maybe months) into the year and then they do something which means they fail the resolution, like eating chocolate when they said they wouldn’t. With alcoholics, you’d encourage them to get back on the wagon, but with resolutionists (is that even a word?!) it’s just assumed that you’ve failed and you give up and maybe try again next year.

With this commitment to finish challenges though, it’s much harder to fail. Instead of saying that they’ll give up chocolate, they may say, “I am going to finish exercising three days a week on average throughout the year”. This means that if there’s a week where they only manage to exercise one time, they can exercise four days a week for the next two weeks to get back on track – success, not failure.

How To Set Finish Year Goals

Jon gave four tips for how to set goals for this challenge (check out this post for more detailed explanations):

  1. Start small to build momentum
  2. Pick ideas from multiple parts of your life
  3. Focus on efforts, not results
  4. Make sure it matters

With teenagers, the third item on that list can be especially important. You may have a young person who doesn’t have positive self image due to their weight. They’d therefore be better off using an example like I gave above of “I am going to finish exercising three days a week on average throughout the year”, rather than “I am going to finish losing 20 lbs of weight by the end of the year.”

The reason why the first option is better is that other factors can affect result-oriented targets. For example, teenagers’ bodies change all the time, so this young person may put on a growth spurt during the year. They may therefore finish the year at exactly the same weight but because they’re now taller, the weight is more evenly distributed. They’d have “failed” the specific weight loss goal, whereas they can ensure they succeed with the results-oriented goal.

Set SMART Targets

In addition to the four tips Jon gave, make sure that their list is SMART.

Areas For Youth To Consider

Teenagers may have a hard time coming up with alternative New Year’s resolutions. Try not to come up with ideas for them, as they’ll have more ownership and commitment if they’ve come up with their challenges for themselves, rather than having someone else suggest what they should do.

Having said that, they may still struggle making their list. If so, get them to think through some of the following areas of their life that they may want to make a positive change in:

  • Physical
  • Spiritual
  • Emotional
  • School
  • Parents / siblings
  • Job
  • Spare time
  • Skills
  • Volunteering

Follow Up

Don’t run this session about setting New Year’s resolutions for teenagers and then forget to come back to it. If possible, try to discuss their list each week, or at least once per month. This will help keep your youth accountable and means that they can encourage each other if they’re struggling with their commitments.

If you’re a youth pastor and your teenagers meet as part of a small group, the first (or last)  five or ten minutes of each group is a perfect opportunity to cover this.

Use Social Media

Another option you have is to use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. to have your teens share how they’re progressing each week or month:

  • Facebook – Set up a group where they can post how they’re doing on their challenges. They’ll get notifications whenever someone posts in the group, helping keep it at the forefront of their minds each week
  • Twitter – Set up a specific hashtag for your group to use where they can share their successes
  • Google+ – Set up Hangouts each week or month to discuss how they’re getting on if you’re not going to have an opportunity to do this at your regular meetings

What Do You Think?

What ideas can you think of that would make this session on New Year’s resolutions for teenagers even more successful? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed

 

Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays From Youth Workin’ It

December 18, 2011 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Say what?!  A post from Youth Workin’ It on Sunday? I can tell you’re intrigued… read on my friends, read on.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year- a time to spend with family and friends and catching up on your favorite youth work blog… ok maybe I snuck that one in.  I’ll be relaxing by flipping between reading fiction and youth work books.  Don’t judge my bookish nerdiness too much, we’ve got to keep our edge so we can keep bringing you great new content in 2012!!

To countdown to the end of the year we will be posting the top 12 Youth Workin’ It posts from December 19-December 31st. Our blog went live in September, but providing new content six days a week means we still have a lot of great stuff to share from the last few months.

Remember classics like ‘You gave your teens what?!‘ and ‘How to run a Krispy Kreme fundraiser‘ – did they make the top 12?! You’ll just have to check back over the next two weeks to find out.  We think a short break is a good idea for many reasons and we got our inspiration for this from Jon Acuff.

I came across two Christmas-themed blog posts that I thought I’d share – I really enjoyed them, even if I don’t subscribe to some of the views shared.  Whether you’re a parent or a youth worker, a celebrator of Christmas or not, there is a lot of good stuff about the hope, joy, magic and giving that can be associated with the holiday season to share with your youth.

Jen Hatmaker’s post ‘A Christmas Conundrum’ is written in a fun, quirky way that highlights some of the excess that can be associated with the holidays and other holiday thoughts from one Christian’s perspective. The other from Cozi, focuses on The Truth about Santa, his existence and how to keep the magical feelings alive that he can inspire in children and adults alike.

We here at Youth Workin’ It hope you enjoy your holiday season – Christmas Day, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Years Day… Tuesday. However you celebrate – whether it’s with Chinese food, a Kinara, Church or a family meal – enjoy it!  (I would like to start a petition that scraps the traditional Christmas dinner in favor of Chinese food for all – Stephen would not agree to this, he loves roast dinners!)

See you in January with new posts, games, youth work Q & A’s and much more!

You can connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed

 

501 Would You Rather Questions

501 Would You Rather Questions

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas cover

How To Plan A Youth Retreat

How To Plan A Youth Retreat cover

Categories

Best Of Youth Workin' It
Book Reviews
Guest Post
Spotlight on Youth
Types Of Youth Work
Would You Rather Questions
Youth & Society
Youth Group Activities
Youth Group Fundraiser
Youth Group Games
Youth Retreat
Youth Work Program Administration
Youth Work Q & A
Youth Work Session Plan Ideas
Youth Worker Stuff
Youth Workin' It Stuff

Tags

Administration Balloons Boundaries Budget Christmas Communication Facebook Food Food Games Global Issues Global Youth Work Goal Setting Group Development Group Games Guest Posts Interview Skills Life Skills Parents Planning Policies and Procedures Relationships Relay Games For Teenagers Scavenger Hunt Ideas School Self-Esteem SMART Social Media Strategic Planning Team Building Twitter Up Front Games Volunteering Volunteers Water Games For Youth Would You Rather Youth Behavior Youth Cartel Youth Group Bonding Youth Participation Youth Retreat Center Youth Retreat Themes Youth Scavenger Hunt Youth Work Definition Youth Work Resources Youth Work Training

Search Youth Workin’ It

All Content © Copyright 2011-2025, Stephen & Shae Pepper, youthworkinit.com