When kids learn goal-setting at an early age, they discover the value of hard work and patience towards achieving their goals.
It gets them to think about the sort of person they are. It helps them define their interests and lets them express how they feel about themselves. It allows them to see areas of personal improvement and lets them discover what it is that they want most in life.
Here are 4 of the top reasons why you should be teaching your kids to set goals for themselves:
- Sense of Purpose
Goal-setting helps children develop a sense of purpose which improves their self-esteem. By learning to discover what it is they value and want to achieve, they become self-aware. This builds their confidence as that acknowledge what they like most about themselves. They also determine what it is they value most in life.
Because goals are meant to be personal and meaningful, kids are driven by internal motivation which fuels their energy and strength.
- Develops Their Focus
Without a goal, children lack direction. Because goals often come with some form of a reward, kids who have goals have something to look forward to. And because they have a target to focus on, they begin to develop decision-making skills and how options that are presented to them can either bring closer and further from reaching goals.
- Unlocks Potential
It’s amazing what your child can discover about themselves as they progress towards achieving their goals. Along the way, they may discover they were good at something that they never thought they would be.
Working towards your goals isn’t always easy, and kids may encounter many disappointments before reaching it. But with every failure is an opportunity to learn and improve. Through the process of goal-setting, many children reveal things about their character that they didn’t know that they had like resilience and integrity.
- Teaches Kids to Be Realistic
Children may think that goals are like dreams. By teaching them goal-setting, they will learn that while dreams and goals have many things in common, setting realistic goals are more within their control.
Perhaps they want to save up enough money to buy a new glove or attend a summer sports camp. Explain that these are attainable goals that don’t just have to be dreams and something that they can work towards.
Remember that it’s never too early to start instilling the value of setting goals and working towards reaching them to your kids. Start simple by helping your child pick something that is fun that they can achieve in a relatively short amount of time. With every small goal they reach, they start to think bigger. Support them in attaining their goals by helping them track their progress. Before you know it, they’ll be goal-setting naturally. And they’ll most likely be doing it well into adulthood.