Goal setting and accomplishment
Why set goals
Goal setting is a process of discerning a superlative future, and motivating each one to turn this vision of this bright future into reality. Setting a target is the first and most significant step towards attaining it. Like a game of football; one can’t keep kicking the ball at random; it will be a futile waste of effort. Likewise one cannot let hours, days, months and an entire lifetime pass by; without any clearly defined objectives, missions and goals to accomplish. A goal is thus the most mandatory prerequisite to achieve anything in life. Children need to set these goals right so that they can guide and direct their own lives on the appropriate fruitful path.
Setting a goal
As simple and easy as it sounds, setting a goal is not a guileless task. One needs to be very reasonable, committed, intelligent and a focused visionary, to set realistic respectable goals. Once children know what they are looking out for, there is no room for procrastination. When they have a goal they can establish ways and means to achieve their dream. There will be desires, wishes, dreams and wants that all children have; these are not goals. Goal setting has always been a tedious task; accomplishing it is another challenge in itself. Destinations need to be set; and the path to reach there ought to be chalked out too.
Psychology of success
When a ladder is placed inside the cage of mice or guinea pigs; their instinct is to climb it; to be at the top, to rule, to conquer, and to be the accomplished one. The animal kingdom (man is an animal too) seeks triumph. We are humans; the nevertheless superior animals; we like to climb every ladder and be at every summit to leave our mark. The joy of beating their own classmates, the pride in crushing foes, and competing with friends occasionally, becomes a pattern of achieving in children; and that achievement is presumptively termed as success. They don’t realize how they set small goals themselves, and triumph on achieving them. If they could organize bigger ambitions, they would attain the highest success in life.
Added value
The path to most goals is not so simple. Inspiration is a big driver to positive action which is what convinces children of the worthiness of the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone can see the light but it doesn’t motivate each one analogously. The psyche of children modifies responses to stimuli and formulates specific thresholds which then conclude in either action or inertia. These are absolutely personal and do not have structured correlations.
- Some children are unmotivated for better grades and it seems impossible to change that
- Children are overweight and depressed but do not feel like exercising to lose some weight
- Kids have more acquaintances and few friends but they don’t even try to make friends
The purpose of life is not to merely survive, but to thrive, flourish, blossom and boom. That little nonfigurative goal usually does the trick. Inspiration is needed for every action.
Motivation
Motivation is occasionally synonymized with inspiration. It is pronounced as the sole driving factor that pushes children towards a goal. Children are motivated to do the things they like, things that give them pleasure; acts that make them feel good, and deeds that prevent pain, accentuating happiness and pleasure. While motivation may be driven by material rewards (rightfully so) inspiration is usually abstract. Inspiration drives them from within, to excel not for a reward, but the desire to master the action for the sake of self-growth.
MINDFRAMES: Reframing goals
It’s really not a thin line between dreaming and achieving. It’s a long winding road. And once the task is actually accomplished, it’s not the goal that matters; it’s the journey that gets each one of us there. It is what teaches, seasons and refines existence. We aim to help children dream big, aim high and toil hard to get where they must. Be it academic grades, elocution, sport or socializing; the aim is to instill the desire in children to do the right things and make right choices in order to attain the right outcomes. There are no long jumps. Slow and steady survives and thrives. Goal setting and the path to achieving these goals is itself a learning process. It is primal to generate clarity in the child and adolescent mind to facilitate positive relationships, inculcate healthy decision-making and ensure success in their endeavors.