2023: Starting positively & purposively

In this special year-end issue, we bring to you curated actionable advice from a panel of reputed psychologists, nutritionists, parenting and lifestyle coaches to develop seven habits and skills to improve family life, especially children’s health and well-being in the year ahead With the death-raining Covid-19 pan­demic cloud, which devastated the lives and livelihoods of thousands of families in 2020-2021, having almost vanished, 2022 was a year of recovery and renewal. Children and students are back in their classes in education institutions across the spectrum from pre-primaries to universities, and adults have transitioned from work-from-home to formal workplaces. Now in the season of peace on earth and goodwill to men, fresh buds of hope indicate that 2023 will be a big bounce back year for India. Traditionally the New Year is a time to make resolu­tions, even if they are soon forgotten. According to a sur­vey conducted by the San Francisco (USA)-based Strava Fitness, which analysed 98.3 million user-logged activities on its app, most people forget their New Year resolutions by January 19. Nevertheless, psychologists, parenting and lifestyle coaches advise children and adults to make New Year resolutions and set goals. “For most people, following through their New Year resolutions is tough. But it’s good to set goals and resolve to change for the better. Transforming resolutions into priorities and goals gives direction to a person’s life and enables self-improvement in chosen areas. Better still, for this new year I have advised families to set collective and individual goals for healing and bonding after the pandemic,” says Ritu Hirani, psychotherapist, NLP master practitioner, life coach and founder of ShineSpace Life Coaching Ser­vices, Bengaluru. Therefore in this special year-end issue, we bring to you curated actionable advice from a panel of reputed psychologists, nutritionists, parenting and lifestyle coaches to develop seven habits and skills to improve family life, especially children’s health and well-being, in 2023. SET GOALS Goal-setting is an important skill-set which should be taught from early years. “Goal-setting for children is im­portant because it gives them a sense of purpose that can improve their confidence and build self-esteem. It also helps them to focus and make better decisions. Along with this, goal-setting can be used to motivate children by ensuring they achieve small goals on a regular basis. Kids who have goals do better in life than kids with no plan at all. Teach your children the necessity of goalsetting and how to go about it,” says an essay published in childwatch.com, an app which helps parents manage childcare duties. Ritu Hirani advises parents and children to make a list of goals from which they should short-list five prime goals for 2023. Un­derline one or two which are the most important. Maintain a journal to list long-term, yearly, monthly and daily goals. “For instance, if your child wants to become a tennis champion, after defining an­nual and monthly goals, narrow it down to a daily goal that includes minimum hours of practice, nutrition and sufficient sleep. Thus, the overall…