The Ingredients required for Goal setting has its place of importance and meaning in a child’s life. Communication with children is equally important as to know their desires.  It is the duty of every parent and teacher to motivate and encourage kids to set the goals and achieve them. They need to blooms and flower in free atmosphere and at their own pace. They need to possess the following ingredients:

* Physical fitness
* Leisure time
* education
* healthy family atmosphere
* peace of mind
* love & respect
* financial back up
* constructive & productive activities

Sometimes, Silence speaks a thousand words! So, Listen to the child’s voice. Even they have tiny minds to “Think” Let them speak and find out what they really aspire and then, let them set their own goals, their own way! Just stand by them!

Goal Setting Method

To begin with, the child requires developing certain key areas that give meaning to a balanced life.

Set Goals: Make the kids to set and achieve goals. Are they really goal oriented? A child of eight years or eighteen, a parent or teacher can help with the cycle of setting and achieving goals. They need to be pushed from the start. A little helping and caring touch so that the kids bloom to flower in a free atmosphere making a choice of their ultimate winning Goal.

Strengths: Each child is born with his own inner strengths. Some brand as fast learners whereas some are slow. All stand different in their areas of expertise. Some kids are good at language and some excel with math skills or be a good athlete. All they need is to explore in their preferred choice of activity. Reading biographies of famous people is also another way to show the real strength these individuals possess who had a great character, values and dedication to follow their goals. They do have their turning point in their lives and a day when they had a determination with an attitude of ‘I can do it’ and finally, achieve the desired goal. These inspirations can be instill faith in kids to shake their inner strength with the right attitude “That’s it and I want to be just that”

Capture Factors : It is the duty of the parent or the Teacher to be considerate of the activity the child is good at. Right from start, it is required to find out what attracts the attention of the child. We always perform the activities that interest us. Some people indulge into varied activities and ultimately be ‘A jack of all trades but master of none’. It is only important that a kid enjoys the activity. What book does a child pick up and read? What television program interests him? What class he enjoys most? As a parent or Teacher, examine his interest and mould him to choose the right way out and talk about his interests in these areas to get a clear picture of his thoughts for achieving purposeful goals in these areas. Do  not force the child to make him read when he wish to watch a cartoon show but make sure that the stuff he reads or the show he watches is proper or not.

Strong feelings: Some kids have strong feelings of wants and it keeps adding to his long list of “wants” Needs vary every new single day from choice of cars, video game, cd, cassette, book, bike, branded clothes or shoes, etc. The new generation kids are high flying these days and their needs are endless. A child who is too fond of cars would dream to be a ‘car racer’ and would like to join the Road Rash Racing tracks and feel the thrill of speed driving. Get him know about all the Racing books, drivers who strived hard to reach their goal and kids will discover that they have to make all efforts. If the kid is interested in Cricket, the kids will realize that they require a lot practice after all often giving up other interest. If the child is hooked for hours on computers playing games might not be interested later for programming languages and his area of interest may change. There is an intensity of purpose to achieve a goal.  

Opportunity levels: Creating opportunities for the child is the best way to make them achieve their goals. No parent or teacher should choose an activity that the child dislike but at the same time, mould the child to take interest in the right activities, which are good for them. It so happens that kids who love music may end up feeling bored in a classical music class or a piano class. Some kids just love to read whereas some kids refrain from reading class. Mostly these things happen due to lack of confidence and their inferiority complex creeps to make them withdraw from doing the activity they are not good at. Hence, it is always good to promote good activities and provide opportunities to the children to flourish and develop themselves constructively.

GOAL CHALLENGES

Inner fire: Whose Goal is it anyway? The goal should be set by the child and not the parent or the teacher – Just remember this! A parent may wish that her child is a good student and stands A plus in the class. But its on the child what she wish to be. She would likely strive to stand A plus with the inner fire, a drive that says “It’s important for me and I will attain my goal to fetch A plus” Its like striving to reach the moon and picking the stars too but then, the inner fire within strikes a great deal of zeal and determination to achieve a goal.

Reach : Is the Goal Attainable? The first important thing that the child needs to believe is in himself and the things he can do. They need to believe that they can reach the goal with determined efforts even though it may stand a fifty-fifty chance of success. Don’t commit a mistake to set your goals and make the child carry out! Instead let them believe that they can do it and they will! At least, there is a will and there is a way out.

Worth: What makes worth Attaining Goal? The possible benefits and worth time, money and energy spent over it is the factor to consider. Sometimes, teachers say “Learn this lesson but this will not appear in exams” Students would immediately skip even reading the lesson, relax and sit back to say “Oh, we don’t have this lesson for exams” They would think it has little benefit here. In fact this is not right. The more reading, more learning do have its own pace. There has to be an ardent desire that yes, I want to get educated and not just learn lessons and get grades. This very learning would gain more confidence, do more activities with ease, more understanding and the kid realize the worth of developing a taste for reading. Fluency too comes gradually and stronger the desire, easier the reach of the goal.

Pen down ideas: Is the Goal in writing? Today the kid wants to be a Doctor, a few years later, a car racer and the next year dreams to be a filmstar! Hence, let the kids write their goals down. It makes it clear, provides an organized plan and keeps track of progress. There is a feeling of sense of commitment when the child pens down to paper. It shoots right into the head once he writes down. Our mind is a thought factory which has production of new thoughts every minute! The vision may be pretty short sighted. Many children set goals and end of the week, lost the track. When the new year comes, you make a resolution, pen down a list of Do’s and Don’ts and then gradually, it evaporates! So, make the copies of these written goals and hang in your room, mirror, kitchen, notebook and then, the moment the child see there, the inner self stirs that’s ‘Yeah, these are my goals’ and the inner sub conscious does the tricks.

Set Deadlines: Are the deadlines realistic? Break the long term goals into short. Goals and deadlines are easier to reach when they are broken into manageable tasks. Set dates for the goal. Get the child set the date limit to finish the English course, then the math or just make a Time-table. It helps prioritize where and how time is allocated, making easy to perform the task. Once there is a deadline, the child is then ready to face the challenge managing time for work and play and thus, accomplish goal within the deadline. Even the parent or the teacher need not panic if there is proper plan. Expectations should not be beyond capacity of the child. If the child is not good in Math, don’t set A goal but be cool and relax, he will do fine with that extra time plan and efforts.

Reward: Has the reward been established? Once the child who has set a goal and accomplished it, she deserves to feel proud and feel the satisfaction of a purposeful goal. Encourage the child “What nice would you do for yourself? Get good clothes or go for a movie, pizza center or get an encyclopedia. Be practical and buy practical too.

Dear Kids Freesouls,

There goes a saying “Some people don’t aim too high and miss, they aim too low and hit!” The most powerful time is the time when we are alone, thinking about what we are to do.  We need to set our goals and target to reach to heights. Daily Planning helps us to focus on what is really crucial and important in our day to come and permits us to identify time to use wasted hours more productively. It is said "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." And so, its always a sure fire way to try to catch the moon and while doing so, sure you pick up the stars there somewhere! And then, there is this strong Faith and ‘Believe in yourself and the things that you can do’ and nothing ever stops you from reaching your desired Goals.

Aim high, keep the Faith.

 - Editor, Kidsfreesouls