Goal Setting for Kids

By James Robbins

Goal setting like many other valuable skills in life is usually not taught in school. This leaves parents the responsibility to pass on the great power of effective goal setting to their children. Of course one of the best way to teach goal setting to our children is to be modeling the process ourselves.

Children actually love to set goals. One time my family decided to do a little goal setting in order to make the house run more efficiently. We sat down and created some goals and the kids became contagiously excited. The key for kids, is that you need to make it into a game.

What we did to make the goal setting process fun for them was add a few important elements.
Here are a few tips for goal setting with kids.

1. Set measurable goals.

This is important for anyone setting goals, and it is a good thing to teach your children this lesson early. We had simple goals relating each week to completing chores around the house.

2. Create a fun way to measure.

Children need to visually see their progress. What we did was print out a large photo of a mountain and stuck it on our fridge. Our goal was to reach the top. Then we cut out little flag magnets so that as we completed our goals we moved higher and higher up the mountain. This made goal setting fun for the kids. You should have seen their excitement every evening, as we would update our mountain. We had kids running off to clean rooms, make beds, and sweep floors so they could move the flag higher up the mountain.

This tiny game we developed on our fridge eventually became the inspiration for building the online goal setting game The Summit.

3. Have a reward.

Rewards are important for goal setting. I cannot remember what the reward was but our kids were excited about it. We told them that if we reached the top we would get the reward as a family.

Day by day we moved up the mountain and our kids had a blast at the same time. It made our house cleaner, our children more motivated and it taught them some important principles of the goal setting process. You can make your own family goal game, just do what we did and cut out a picture of a mountain and tape it to your fridge, and you kids will have a blast. Goal setting can be a lot of fun.

And if you want to play the online goal setting game inspired by the events in this article then take the Summit Challenge. In addition to creating the Summit Challenge James Robbins also delivers keynotes on personal excellence and leadership. To find out more about the Summit Challenge, go to www.ontothesummit.com

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Goal Setting And Your Own Peace Of Mind

By Mark McClure

Goal setting turns some people right off! Even people who are serious about personal development and goal setting sometimes voice similar concerns. Why is that? Perhaps the goal is too ambitious for the abilities of the person concerned. And so they begin to stress and worry about never achieving it. That's a clue to what I believe is the root cause behind the avoidance of setting goals, or of dropping them. Your own peace of mind.

Peace of mind is clearly related to happiness and reminds me of that old children's rhyme, "if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". Clearly, happiness is linked with how we experience and perceive life around us. We sometimes talk about balanced or well adjusted people. These people seem to be living in alignment with certain values and beliefs. When these values are disregarded, often peace of mind can begin to fray and unwind.

And this is not just an individual thing. Almost all social organizations depend on it for their smooth running. For example, families, work colleagues and sports teams all function more smoothly when simple courtesy systems and good manners are adopted as a way to interact without upsetting others' peace of mind.

So how does this fit in with your goal setting? The simplest way of looking at it is to appreciate that your own personal peace of mind is a kind of inner compass. When a goal begins to upset your peace of mind to such an extent that you become very unhappy and want to give it up, that is a sign for you to examine how true this goal really is to your own set of values and beliefs. This extra step is one that many people avoid, probably because they have not first made it a habit when goal setting and reviewing.

Here's an effective way to look at goal setting and peace of mind. Assume that your peace of mind is indeed for your highest good. Begin to expect that inner peace and happiness will be with you throughout your life, in addition to the rich tapestry of emotions that life experiences will bring anyway.

Practically speaking, this means that you should examine each goal from the viewpoint of how does it affect your inner peace of mind. If it is in harmony with that peace of mind then it is most likely a worthwhile goal. If something doesn't feel right then perhaps either you or the goal may need to change in some way.

I invite you to discover how to begin creating incredible yet reachable goals with this FREE 14-page report: Goal Setting Peace of Mind

Mark McClure is a Tokyo-based business owner and coach and gives daily thanks for personal peace of mind.http://www.goalcreationmaps.com/art