Making Goals with your Child

Maping out Goals with your Child

When your child chooses to make goals, she is choosing to be successful. At first, making goals may appear to be a huge task. But making goals leads to smarter choices. Those choices will lead to smarter actions. These actions will lead to a successful life. There is no way to get around it; goals lead to success.

To explain goals to your child, log on to Yahoo Maps. Type in your address (Point A), then type in an address of a friend who lives in the same town (Point B), and print the map.

As you look at the map, you have several things to discuss with your child.  Is the map clear? Can you see a way to get from point A to point B? Or is it fuzzy? You need to have a clear picture of your goals, or you will never achieve them. It also is helpful if you can picture the end result, just as you can see point B on the map. 

Let’s look at the word MAP as an acronym to help us set our goals:

• Measurable – Can you measure how to get from your house to your friend’s house?
• Accomplishable – Is it something you can accomplish?
• Purposeful – Is going to your friend’s house something you want to do? 

As you help your child to set goals, help your child find the four elements. Goals should be something she can see, measure, accomplish and want to do.  Below are five areas in which most people set goals. Pick one of the areas of focus for a month. Then add a different goal every month.

Areas to focus on for making goals

• Family – Do you need more patience in dealing with a family member?
• School – Do you want to improve performance in a subject?
• Personal – Do you have something to improve in your life?
• Community – Is there someone you can help?
• Spiritual – Is there a scripture to memorize or a trip to take 

Here are examples from each area:

• Family – I will allow my younger brother to play with my friends and me five times this month.
• School – I will study five spelling words every school day.
• Personal – I will practice the piano four times a week for a half hour.
• Community – I will help an older person once a week.
• Spiritual – I will memorize a verse a week.

Are these goals clear? Do they state something your child can accomplish? Are they measurable (five times, four times, once weekly)? Is this something your child wants to do?

 As a parent, you can help your child to achieve her goals. If she has tried to accomplish too much, cut the number down. It is more important to re-evaluate and make a new goal achievable rather than stick to the old impossible goal. Setting goals might seem difficult, but the rewards are worth the effort.