Goal Setting

GOAL SETTING



Goals are critical. They keep you focused on what’s important, and allow you to make the best use of your 24 hours each day. We all know that. And yet research shows only 20% of the population sets goals and 92% of those goals are never achieved. And it becomes more challenging when the person you want to set goal is an Adolescent!

It is difficult for teens to see beyond the present. Goal setting challenges them psychologically because it involves having to wait for a long time to see the results, which, again, is a good lesson to teach as kids grow up. They should learn that anything good is worth working for and that it is only over time and effort that we see the true results of all of our hard work. Very few things come to us immediately. We all know without a goal in mind we can end up wasting time and energy and are finally left with nothing in hand.

In a bid to demonstrate to them how gratifying, energizing and fulfilling goal setting and accomplishing can be, we made a group of adolescents do this activity:

1. Gave them the freedom to choose: We made them choose 1 task/activity/goal that they always wanted to/expected to do but never really got to do for various reasons

2. Made it a group activity: Each member of the group had to choose one activity and put it on an online excel sheet and update it each day with a “tick” or “cross”.

3. Kept the time frame short: We set aside just 15 minutes each day for the task and decided we would do it for only exactly 21 days.

At the end of the 21 day challenge, one of the tweenies exclaimed “this is the first time I have set a goal and actually completed it. I had no idea how easy and satisfying it is. I am so looking forward to setting my next goal!!””

When the adolescents think the goals that have been set are relevant to them, attainable and time-bound, they are more motivated and better tuned to accomplish them.

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