Teaching children how to set goals is a skill that will help them in all aspects of their lives. This is a process where parents and children can work and learn together. There are five main steps in the process of learning to set goals. The five main steps are:
Step One: Design and Create a Vision Board and Choose a Goal to Work On
Step Two: Learn Decision-Making Techniques
Step Three – Learn the goal setting process which helps you list the steps required to reach your goal
Step Four: Learn to Take the Initiative to Start Working on Your Goal
Step Five: Learn How to Set Up a Process and Checklist to Monitor Your Progress
The first step is to determine what some of our goals are visually. A good place to start this process is to create a “Vision Board.” Creating a Vision Board helps us graphically “see” which areas of our lives we want to focus on first. You and your children can create your own vision boards and how to use them once you are done. This is a fun activity that families can do together. The children become more engaged when they see their parents complete the activity and it helps them realize that we never stop setting goals for ourselves.
The second step in the goal setting process is learning decision-making techniques that help us learn how to make decisions. Once your children have completed their vision board, they can use decision-making techniques to learn how to determine which goal they want to work on first.
The Third Step is to learn the Goal Setting Process. Once you and your children have determined which goal you want to work on first, the goal-setting process will help you all learn how to break your goal down into manageable steps and in an order that will be helpful to follow. All goals and activities are more likely to continue and be completed if they are approached one step at a time.
The fourth step in the goal-setting process is to help children develop initiative. Nothing is ever achieved if we don’t start. We need to be very understanding when children are learning this process for the first time. Once they have started working on their goal, you will begin to help them take the initiative they need to begin taking responsibility for carrying out the steps of the goal they have chosen.
The last step in the goal-setting process is to establish ways for children to monitor their progress and celebrate the progress they have made. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth tracking and following. We may think that what they are doing is not that important, but what we are really teaching them is a process of how to manage their tasks, responsibilities and their lives. This will help reinforce the goal setting process and make it easier as you move on to the next goal, which is the last step in this process: START WORKING ON YOUR NEXT GOAL.