Parents want their children to grow up and maximize their potential. However, it can be difficult for children to set goals and find the motivation to achieve them.
To help your child move toward their goals independently, your top priority is to help them establish practical goals and motivate them throughout the process. Determining defined goals is the difference between success and failure.
Keep reading if you are ready to help your child reach their potential. This article outlines the foundational skills your child needs to pursue their own goals, the power of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, and actionable strategies to create an encouraging environment for your child.
Table of Contents
Identifying Aspirations
Before considering your children’s goals, you must consider their aspirations first. What interests does your child have? Are there any areas where they have shown aptitude or taken up challenges of their own volition?
Identifying your child’s aspirations or areas of interest is the first step in helping them create goals. If your child has not shared their opinions or struggles, there are several strategies you can employ.
Active listening is one of the best ways to identify your child’s aspirations. Active listening is when you engage with and show you are listening through your follow-up questions, behavior, and eye contact. This technique validates your child’s perspectives and shows you value their opinions and views.
You can also introduce your child to people who have succeeded in an area of your child’s interests. This person can build a relationship with your child, serve as a mentor, or demonstrate what is possible if they pursue their goals.
Ability-Appropriate Goals
Many people focus on big dreams, but it’s important to be realistic. When helping your child set goals, it’s critical to consider their ability level.
Setting big-picture goals of becoming a professional athlete or musician is great, but this goal may be out of reach based on their ability level. The disconnect between current ability and desired outcome causes many young people to give up.
Instead of dismissing the large goal, you can brainstorm with your child to establish an ability-appropriate goal to help them achieve the larger goal.
For example, if your child wants to become a professional musician, setting an age-appropriate goal, like learning a new piece of music or joining a band or musical group, would be wise. Any age-appropriate goal should align with the larger goal.
Co-Creating SMART Goals
If your child is ready to set goals, using the SMART goals framework is a highly effective way to create an actionable plan to turn even the biggest dream into specific, tangible objectives.
The five-step approach to setting SMART goals is as follows:
1. Specific: Define Clear Objectives
The first step of creating a SMART goal is to help your child identify clear and specific goals. Such goals should pinpoint the exact objective they aim to achieve. Examples of specific goals include making the high school sports team, learning to play an instrument, or winning a relevant competition.
In addition to setting a specific goal, ask your child why they want to achieve it. This knowledge makes meeting the goal more concrete and real and helps develop their why.
2. Measurable: Track Progress Effectively
To effectively pursue a goal, your child’s SMART goal must be trackable. Your child should think of the following questions:
- What does success look like?
- How will I know I have reached my goal?
- What are the actions that will get me there?
Examples of measurable goals are practicing 30 minutes daily, reading one book weekly, or turning in all their homework. These measurable goals allow you to celebrate your kid’s victories.
These measurable and trackable goals should be behavior-based rather than outcome-focused. Your child only has control over the actions, not the outcome. Focusing on the behavior will prevent them from getting disheartened when they face obstacles or setbacks.
3. Achievable: Set Realistic Targets
Many kids often set unattainable or idealistic goals, and after some time, they become demotivated because of repeated failures. To avoid this common pitfall, it is critical to help your child establish achievable goals.
Achievable does not mean easy. The goal can still be challenging or rigorous, but it should be based on their age or ability level. This part of a SMART goal is one of the hardest to navigate because you must balance setting reasonable goals without undercutting your child’s aspirations.
The key is to choose goals that balance challenge and ambition in a reasonable time frame. Focus on goals that your child can achieve in 3-4 months. This time frame encourages achievable goals so they can navigate challenges without losing motivation.
4. Relevant: Ensure Alignment With Interests and Values
The next step involves ensuring your child’s goals align with their genuine interest and values. You can engage in open conversations with them and check whether their aims resonate with their values. If your child is passionate about their chosen goal, there will be higher chances of success.
5. Time-Bound: Establish Timelines for Particular Goals
Finally, help your kids set a deadline for particular objectives. Time is a powerful motivator and can help teach prioritization and time management. It also encourages consistent effort.
Teaching Resilience & Celebrating Hard Work
During the journey of reaching their SMART goals, children may get disheartened. Apathy and a lack of motivation are common problems many children face. You can avoid this trap by teaching resilience and celebrating your child’s hard work.
Celebrating their hard work can further motivate them to reach the final target. You can use verbal praise, special treats, or fun activities they enjoy as a reward when they demonstrate hard work and perseverance. Praising effort is the most important thing you can do to encourage resilience.
By focusing on effort instead of outcome, you can empower your child. This approach will give your child a sense of control and agency, help them develop a growth mindset, and improve resilience and confidence.
Creating an Environment That Encourages Goal-Setting
Letting your child spread their wings and pursue their goals independently is critical if you want them to succeed. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to support them. Crafting an environment that encourages and supports goal-setting is an effective way to help your child.
Here are a few tips to create one in your home:
- Lead by Example — Show them goal-setting through your actions.
- Encourage Curiosity — Foster their interests and passions to inspire goal formation.
- Establish Safe Space — Create an open environment at home for sharing ideas and dreams.
- Ask Questions — Asking questions can help your child process their challenges and encourage reflection.
- Set Realistic Expectations — Guide them in setting challenging yet achievable goals.
- Provide Support — Offer resources and mentorship for their chosen aspirations.
- Foster Independence — Allow them to take charge of their goals and decisions.
Additional Assistance
Encouraging goal-setting in children and motivating them throughout the process is foundational for their future development. However, if you are struggling to encourage goal-setting in your children, Emergent Education can provide valuable assistance.
Emergent Education has a team of professional educators to help your child identify their aspirations, develop goals, and improve their resilience and motivation.
Contact us today to get your child the support they need to reach for the stars and move toward their goals independently.