Your Children’s New Year’s Resolutions
January 3rd, 200887% of New Year’s resolutions are gone by February 15th, do not let that happen to you!
One great way to start the New Year off on a positive note is to set New year’s resolutions with your kids. Setting goals is one of the only true ways to make any progress. But whether it’s making the football team, getting better grades or being more involved in school, keeping resolutions seems to get harder and harder as the months progress. Here are some tips to make your family’s a reality.
First, the goal must be specific. Simply saying they want to improve their grades doesn’t give your kids something tangible to work towards. Specifying by saying what grade they want to achieve in each class, on the other hand, makes the goal more possible to reach. Being specific about their goals can help your kids think of things they can do that will help them achieve their goals.
The resolution also has to be measurable. If they can make a resolution to be more active, set a specific amount of time for physical activity each day or each week so that they will know when they have reached that goal or how much harder they have to work to reach it. If they aren’t spending the allotted time being active they can readjust their daily activities to help them get on the right track towards meeting their goal.
If the goal is attainable, it is something realistic that they can actually achieve this year. Saying that they want to graduate in one year is not a realistic, attainable goal. Setting long term goals is helpful, but you also want to set short term goals that can help them reach long term goals.
Watch out for road blocks on the road to achievement. By figuring out what obstacles might get in the way of reaching each goal before they actually occur, you and your kids will be ready to take them on when they do occur. For example, if spending too much time at practice might hinder them from reaching their goal of better grades, tell them in advance that they might have to suspend other activities until their grades are up to par so that you already know how to handle the situation.
Lastly, it’s important to set a time table when working towards goals. Giving yourself a deadline will help motivate you to put your plans into action and get things done instead of just talking about them. If your child says they want better grades, they should set a time for when he wants their grades to improve. It might be too hard to improve grades by the next report card, so they might say by the end of the school year. This way they set a time limit for when they want to achieve the goal instead of saying they want their grades to improve sometime in the future.
Look at 2008 as a chance to break the habit of resolution-breaking. Sit down with your kids and talk about what they want to accomplish this year and set a SMART game plan for how they can achieve their goals. For FREE info on how to set and achieve your goals this year, e-mail actionkarate@comcast.net.
Contributed by Solomon Brenner Author of Black Belt Parenting “The Art of Raising Your Child For Success.” Master Brenner uses the Action Karate to teach self control so your child will not lose their temper, be disrespectful, cry too easily and accept responsibility.
