Set and Achieve SMART Goals with Your Kids

As the New Year dawns, it brings with it fresh opportunities to set and pursue meaningful goals for both you and your family. Whether you wholeheartedly embrace the idea of New Year’s resolutions or find them a tad daunting, instilling the art of goal-setting in your children is invaluable. When kids witness how we approach our desires and the strategies we employ to attain them, they learn to approach their own aspirations with thoughtfulness and purpose. Crafting meaningful resolutions with your kids involves a few key principles:

Making SMART Goals:

While setting a general resolution to read more, exercise regularly, or spend more time outdoors can initially spark motivation, these aspirations often fizzle out as January progresses. To boost your chances of success, delve into specifics with your kids about the goals you aim to achieve. 

SMART goals are a widely accepted framework that encapsulates the following:

• Specific: Clearly define what you intend to accomplish.
• Measurable: Determine how you’ll measure success and track your progress.
• Achievable: Assess whether you possess the necessary skills and resources.
• Relevant: Understand why this goal holds significance at this moment.
• Time-Bound: Establish a realistic timeframe for achievement.

Encouraging kids to embrace these ideas may initially pose a challenge, but guiding them through these considerations for their own goals is immensely beneficial. For instance, if your child’s goal is to make the travel baseball team this spring, their SMART goals might look like this:

• Specific: I want to earn a spot on the travel team during tryouts.
• Measurable: To make the team, I need to have these specific skills mastered.
• Achievable: I’ll do extra batting practice every Saturday until tryouts and work out 4-5 times per week to get my strength up before tryouts.
• Relevant: I want to keep playing baseball after high school, and this travel team gives me the best prospects at that.
• Time-Bound: Tryouts are on this date, so I have until then to put in the work.

Whether the goals are individual or family-oriented, adopting this approach lends them a tangible and actionable quality.

Set Yourself Up for Success:

Every moment, your brain is tirelessly processing new information, forming memories, and guiding you through life’s various domains, from classrooms to sports fields to workplaces and beyond. The way your brain engages with the world holds immense sway over your endeavors.

Key cognitive skills, such as logic, reasoning, attention, memory, processing speed, and visual and auditory processing are pivotal for establishing and accomplishing goals, regardless of age. Weaknesses in any of these areas can impede progress and make both setting and achieving goals seem like an uphill battle.

If you find that your child struggles with goal-setting or lags behind peers, it’s crucial to address the root of the issue: enhancing how their brain interacts with the world. 

Equipping your child with the necessary cognitive skills is the foundational step toward ensuring they thrive in their pursuits. To learn more about how brain training targets these essential skills, click here.