Did you know that there are about 92% of people who are not able to effectively meet their goals? Chances are that they were never taught how to set their goals. As parents, it’s our duty to help our children learn the important skill of goal-setting and working towards them. As the wife of a sports professional, settings goals, has been a vital part of our lives. Whether it is listing down the daily chores, personal objectives, or work goals, we try and make it a regular thing.
Inculcate the habit of goal-setting when they were young.
As soon as our son learned to write and speak bigger sentences, we would often teach him ways to remember his tasks. Things like picking up his toys, finishing his homework as he grew, helping out with home chores, etc. all became his little goals. We made a fun goal chart that had everyone’s name and every time someone accomplished their task, they got a point. Gradually, we started increasing these goals/chores, it involved stuff about our work and his classes.
Read here how sports add value to my little one’s life.
Now that writing down information about his soccer class has become a norm, he is also accustomed to pen down his sports goals. I learned this very early in my relationship with my now-husband, then-boyfriend, to segregate goals. He would always ask me to list down my short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. As a corporate professional, I found this method very similar to the time management quadrant method
How can you help your kids list their goals? Here’s how
- Let them choose their goals. Ask them what they’d like to achieve. What is it that they have on their wish list? Check with them what they’d like to do knowing they wouldn’t fail.
- Discuss what is the purpose of their objective? Check how it will help them and how it would help others. Let them do the talking and explore options. It’s ok if they stumble or they don’t know.
- Use the goal ladder. Make them understand that it is always one step at a time. They don’t need to achieve all goals together. Help them break their ambitions, aspirations into small segments and accordingly guide them.
- Talk about the risk factor. Every time my little brother would set a goal, I would discuss the obstacles with him too. What if the goal changed or he didn’t feel like achieving it. Encourage your kids to talk about potential obstacles as well.
Teach your kids about positive self-talk and learning from failure. Boys are generally more temperamental than girls and sometimes lack patience. These tips along with the focus on their goals and improvement can surely help our little ones soar high.
This post is part of the #Blogchattera2z blogging series where I will be writing all about parenting and my life as a boy mom 🙂
