March 24: Setting Your Long Term Goals

Our second Your Legacy, Your Land webinar was held on March 24, 2016.  Want to watch the recording? 

This webinar covered goal setting, including why goal setting is importants, what is the difference between goals, objectives, tasks as well as some examples including those from the participants. 

There were three worksheets for this webinar: 

• The Heirloom Scale: Where are you on the Heirloom Scale?  What about your co-owner(s)?  Take some time to complete the scale and then share it with your co-owners.
• Individual Values and Goals: Have you thought about what your long term goals are for your land?  This assignment will help you document these thoughts.  Then share with your co-owner(s) and ask them to complete it individually. 
• Shared Values and Goals: Once you and all your co-owners have completed the first two worksheets, then sit down and discuss your individual results.  You might not all agree on everything but see if you can work together to develop your shared values and goals for the long-time future of your land. 
• These assignment are available online with the links above, where you can complete the worksheets and get your results emailed to you.  You can also easily share these links with your co-owner(s).  Word documents of the three assignments are available to download as well.  All of these assignments have been adapted by from the Ties to the Land program at Oregon State University.

Also available are the slides from the presentation (see below).

Here are some additional resources on setting goals:

• Using MyLandPlan.org Goal Tool
• US Forest Service's Preserving the Family Woods: Tools to help guide transfer to the next generation of landowners
• University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension: Good Forestry in the Granite State - Setting Objectives (excellent resources about goal setting, not only important for legacy planning but for your forest management decisions as well). 
• University of Minnesota's Transferring Management Decision Authority: Idenitfying whats important for the current generation (geared toward family business not forestlands specifically)

Also check out Dr. Cushing's article on state estate taxes: The State Death Tax to learn about your state. 

Next Month's Worksheets

We also talked about the worksheet for next month's webinar which will help you document Who Does What On Your Land?  So take a few minutes to work on it. 

And if you haven't done so, remember to take the Legacy Pledge and make a commitment for the future of your land.  We'll keep you informed with monthly emails sharing upcoming expert webinars, worksheets and tools and new resources to help you protect the future of your land. 

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