How to Teach Teens the Importance of Writing Goals

Without concrete goals, it̵7;s easy to flit and float through life and not achieve the successes you might desire. While this lesson may be something you understand as a mature adult, kids can miss this wisdom. As you strive to help teenagers achieve dreams and aspirations, encourage your adolescent to write down his goals to ensure that he sees the objectives in black and white reality.

Instructions

    • 1

      Talk to your teen about the confusion that can result from not defining and documenting goals in a clear and concise manner. Organization is an integral factor in achieving goals because it helps people to define them and make a plan for achieving them.

    • 2

      Explore short-term goals with your teenager to begin learning goal-setting skills, suggests the United Services Automobile Association website. By starting with smaller goals, teens can gain goal-setting experience, which can help prepare them for setting larger goals. Encourage your teen to jot down short-term goals on a calendar or bulletin board to help track goal progress.

    • 3

      Suggest that your teen identify larger goals once she gains experience with setting and reaching short-term goals. Educator Susan V. Bosak, with the Legacy Project, advocates the use of a ̶0;goal letter̶1; in which teenagers identify a specific goal (such as learning a skill or overcoming a challenge) and write out a detailed plan to achieve it. If your teen resists the idea of a letter, suggest writing out a detailed list and plan for achieving a goal.

    • 4

      Encourage your teenager to reread the description and plan of the goal every week to maintain momentum, focus and energy for achieving the goal. By having the detailed plan in writing, your teen can easily review various parts of the goal that he needs to complete to help him stay on track for achieving the goal.

    • 5

      Discuss adjustments or changes that your teen might make to the goal along the way, if necessary. Modifying a goal is important for overall goal achievement, advises Northern Illinois University. Situations change, and the unexpected can occur, so having a written goal plan makes it easy to modify and adjust when the need arises.

    • 6

      Recommend that your teenager save written goals for future reference. She may need to refer back to goals and achievements at a future date. If she has written documentation of what she achieved and in what time period, she can use this information to present her history and achievements.

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