Goal Setting For Children - 5 Easy Steps By Suzie McDermott At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Goal setting for Children is never easy. How do we help our kids set appropriate goals? Motivate them to achieve these goals and act as their mentor to guide them when the going gets tough.

Following the four easy steps below will make goal setting for your children a whole lot easier

1)Define the goal. Without a clear vision of what it is that you want to achieve its easy and likely that you will get side tracked. Write down what it is that you want to achieve. If your kids are too small write it down for them, if they are bigger it’s a great practice to get into. Writing it down helps to clarify want it is you want to achieve and keeps you on track.

Having a written copy of our goals helps us to remain focused on the job. This is a skill that our children need to learn and master if they are to accomplish their goals. The clearer we are on our goals the easier they become to achieve. The clarity of our goals makes it easier to spot what we need to help us to achieve our goals. It also helps our children to filter out all the background noise that is constantly around us these days.

2)Know your Why behind the goal. Knowing why you want to achieve your goal is often overlooked in goat setting. Yet it is critical in stopping you and your kids from giving up. This is how you develop passion in your kids to achieve something.

It is also an important and very useful tool to refer back to when you need to motivate your children to overcome obstacles or when they lose interest to keep going and finish the project.

3)Be your kids mentor and not the doer of the goal. In others do not take over or do the task for your kids. It’s your job to guide your kids, motivate them and build up their confidence. It’s not your job to do it for your kids. This only deflates their confidence and motivation. Taking over, will also deny your kids of the satisfaction of achieving something that is important to them.

As a mentor we need to be able to help our children set realistic goals that they are capable of achieving, know what their limitations are and how to best help them achieve it.

4)Kids need realistic and positive feedback on their performance. We all need to know we have done a good job and our kids are no different. In fact our kids need to be continually reassured that they have done well. Descriptive yet positive feedback works best. Our kids need us to give them realistic feedback so they can learn to honestly assess their abilities. This in turn is a key step in helping them to develop into independent and confident adults.

5)Make it fun. I can’t stress this point enough. Our kids are easily bored and tune off if they find something boring. Let them learn from their mistakes without criticism and always focus on the positive. Remember the journey is just as important as the end result.

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