New Year Resolutions Are Not Just for Adults!

Its never too early to teach children how to set and accomplish goals. Children of every age have goals, --from learning to tie shoes, read or ride a bike, to getting a driver’s license or landing that first job. When we take time to teach our children how to visualize their goals and set a course of action for attaining them, we give them a template for success that will enable them to confidently tackle challenges throughout their lives. Making a resolution is easy. Creating a workable plan of action is the key to success.

To help your child set and reach goals, try the following:

Guide your child in choosing a goal.

Depending on your child's age, encourage her to establish personal goals in key aspects of her life: Physical, Spiritual, Educational, Financial and Social (all relationships/friendships). Give her freedom to articulate her goals. Does she want to earn an “A” in English, make the basketball team or save money for a special toy? Avoid telling her what you think her goals should be. Instead, guide her in choosing goals that are reasonable and attainable within the year. For long term goals, focus on milestones that can be met within the year.

Visualize goals and develop strategies for achievement.

Bring goals to life by creating a vision board. Have your child write down, draw or cut and paste pictures representing his goals. Help him brainstorm concrete steps necessary to accomplish them. Help him prioritize the steps into at least three reasonable actions that he will take to reach his target. Write them down. Have him think about the obstacles he is likely to encounter, and discuss how he will overcome them. Place the vision board in a place where he will see it and repeatedly be inspired.

Review goals periodically.

Take time to sit with your child to review her goals. Remember to encourage her by acknowledging the progress she has made. Be specific when sharing your observations. If progress has been difficult, reconsider the action steps. Were they unreasonably difficult? Were there unforeseen challenges? Help her refine her plan of action if necessary. Learning to adjust and problem solve while remaining focused on her goal is an important life skill to develop.

When a goal is attained...Celebrate! Acknowledgement of a job well done encourages children and reinforces the lessons learned about the benefits of focused, hard work.

~Sheila~

Copyright © 2012 by Gardener Parenting Consultants, LLC