It is never too early to start teaching your children how to set goals. Goals give us something to work towards, they provide a destination and we have the opportunity to develop the map to get there. Setting both short and long term goals helps us feel like we are accomplishing dreams and we learn important information about our ability to be persistent and determined in order to reach our intended goal. Children who know how to set and achieve goals become adults that are successful, responsible and who take action, as opposed to letting life happen to them.
To help your children set goals, start with short-term goals and move on to long-term goals. Examples of goals:
- learning to tie shoes
- learning to ride a bike
- learning to play a sport
- learning a dance
- learning to play an instrument
- saving a certain amount of money
- writing a story
- painting a picture
- learning to drive
Some of these may seem like ordinary life lessons that a child or adolescent will learn through trial and error. That may be true, but teach your children to set the goal anyway. Help them to see that if they set their minds to something, they can achieve it.
Write the goals down with your child. Help them fill in the blank:
I will learn to________ by __________. In order to achieve this, these are the steps I will need to take:
Doing this exercise can be a wonderful quality activity for parents and children. Go ahead and share some of your own goals with your children and discuss what you have done to make them become a reality!
Try and sit down with your children once per month to assess where certain goals are at and to set new ones. Always give recognition and validation for goals that have been achieved by your child. Doing so will instill a “I can!” attitude with your child, which is priceless. Happy goal setting!
