To achieve something worthwhile and tangible in life, goals are extremely important and critical to every one of us, including our kids. Achieving goals means reaching important milestones in life that are otherwise highly impossible to achieve in absence of goal setting. Reaching an important and highly critical goalpost is an art and a precise science, while setting meaningful goals is versatile tool that helps you to travel towards the goalpost. Learning to set goals and pursuing them to their logical end should a priority in everyone's life. Teaching how to set goals and achieve those goals, to your kids is a phenomenal task that needs Herculean efforts from you as a responsible parent.
Goal setting for kids is an intricate process that is very difficult to comprehend and formulate. To make them learn and understand what goal setting really is, is an important task and mandatory duty for every parent. Here are some important suggestions and practical tips for you to understand, how you can teach your kids to learn about goal setting and later achieve them:
Learn goal setting by yourself before setting them with your kids: How efficient and knowledgeable are you about goal setting? Do you know how to set goals and work for them? If not, it is the right time to learn how to set goals. Once you learn how to set goals, you can easily incorporate those ideas in your kid's life. Some of the simple goals that you can set and learn are:
- "I will tidy up and clean my kid's room before he comes back from the class"
- "I will assist my kid to complete all his pending homework by this weekend"
- "My weekly goal is to teach my kid the basics of grammar from chapters 1 to 3"
These are some self taught goals that will teach you how to set goals for your kids. You will need to make yourself an expert in setting goals and achieving them so that you can apply their principles in real life. If you show your kids that you can really set goals and later achieve them, they will start believing in your abilities as a responsible parent. Goals are different for every parent and you may need to choose your own goal and go about achieving them as soon as possible.
Learn to set goals with and for your kids: Kids are not too dedicated towards setting goals and achieve them by applying their mind and body. A number of kids simply fail because they see no real value in working towards a set of goals. In many cases, they also feel that the task of achieving goals is too overwhelming and difficult. Children need considerable support both at home and in their school. You may need to support your kid until such a time when he or she feels extra confident that achieving goals is an easy task. Supporting your kid means assisting or cooperating with your child so that he or she can reach the goalpost very quickly. To support you kid during the process, you may need to:
- Encourage him or her by saying very common and encouraging words like "You can do it".
- Urge or cajole your kid to proceed with the set goal like "Come on, I am with you", "I am here, Let us do it together" or "Do you need any help from me?"
Check out progress: Your kid needs your personal time and attention, while he or she is achieving the set goal. You may need to make it a necessary duty to monitor the actual progress of your kid towards achieving the goal. Monitoring your child's progress could be a very simple process like:
- Dropping into see what your child is up to and suggest simple ways of tackling the goal.
- Sit down with him or her and ask for a status report.
- Check the report and suggest ways to correct if there is anything wrong.
You can monitor the progress of goal setting by using one of the following two effective ways: Setting up a progress meeting with your kid/s over the dining table or in an ice-cream parlor, or maintaining a proper progress report book containing a number of checklists and To-Do lists. Checklists are extremely effective and you can easily monitor the progress of child's goal setting activities.
Recognition and rewards: Achieving goals should be a big event of the family. It is an important occasion when you and your kids should participate in the celebration. Reward your kids with gifts as soon as they reach the set goals, Congratulate and encourage them with kind and good words. It should be your duty to compliment your kids that they have achieved something tangible and worthwhile. One of the best ways to honor your kid's attitude and performance is to let him or her know that they are capable of setting bigger goals and achieving them in the shortest possible time.
Once you teach your children how to set goals and work towards them, they will slowly develop a habit of setting goals for themselves and later start working towards them with attention and dedication. Reaching goalposts on their own will make kids extremely happy, encouraged and bold enough to set goals that are more challenging in the future. Small goals may give way for bigger and more important goals as well. Small children need immense confidence in themselves before setting out to work for their goals. Parents should be their mentors and guides, while the kids are working hard towards reaching their preferred goalposts. Teaching your kids more about the real essence of goal setting will help them in their adulthood to taste considerable success, both in the professional and personal endeavors.