Goal Setting

Specific Written Down Goals

Goals have to be specifically written down.  In helping our children set goals we apply the following to make it SMART Goals.  SMART which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time.

Yale University – Twenty Years Later

In 1953, Yale University did a research on its graduating seniors.  The graduates interviewed were asked if they had a clear, specific set of goals written down with a plan for achieving those goals.  Only 3 percent had their goals written down.

Twenty years later, in 1973, these surviving graduates were tracked down and interviewed again.  

It was discovered that the 3 percent with specific written down goals were worth more financially as compared to the 97% put together.  They were also more successful in other areas of their lives.

Helping Our Children Set Goals

It is so important to help our children set their goals.   It is not easy to just tell them to do it and hoping that they will do it on their own.  You may want to take the following steps to guide and help your child set his goals. 

• Define Your Goals Specifically
• 2.List the Benefits and Reasons for Achieving Them
• 3.Write Down the Strategy and Plan of Action
• 4.Write Down the Date of the Accomplishment 

Goal-Setting Possibilities

Goals come in various categories.  It is endless.  The following are just some of the possibilities.

• Grades for School subject
• Savings for a specific purpose
• Exercise to improve health or for weight management
• Sports, to improve time or position 
• Reading of a number of books in a week
• Learning a new skill
• Improve in behaviour
• Reduce time spent on the computer, internet or television 

Imagining Your Goal

Create a picture of the goal, or find a related picture from magazines.  Get it pasted onto a card or construction paper.  With the Visual and also the written goal on it, with the time to achieve it, it gives your child something to visualize and visit it again and again.  As the proverb says, a picture is worth more than a thousand words.  

From Goal to Habit

It is said that if you work on something long enough, usually for twenty over times, it is likely that it will become a habit.  In Neuroscience term, it is called Mylenation.  As for our children, it would be great to help them set goals which are both meaningful and purpose, and get them to work on it until it becomes a habit.  This will lead them on to be successful also in their adulthood.