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KIDS OF CHARACTER 8/17/2009
Goal Setting Toward Success Kids of Character learn to be goal seeking and goal achieving! I discovered this life lesson as a 5th grader when my teacher, Mrs. Best, had every student in her class memorize their 1-12 multiplication tables. Once a week we could choose one level to recite aloud. If we successfully stated a level without an error, we got to mark a big X through the level completed. What a thrill it was to mark our own big red X across a chart that had our name. She did the same thing with every library book we read. She taught us to succeed one-step-at-a-time. Mrs. Best was the best. Without knowing it at the time, she was helping me build a significant life skill. Kids often discover the valuable goal-setting lesson from a parent, grandparent, teacher, or coach. If you want to help your children or your students become goal seekers, I suggest you explore the following with them: As a child or student becomes a goal seeker, they learn to know their goal is:
We can’t ignore the fact that we live in a get-it-quick; get-it-done-fast world. It seems little attention is paid to the time-worn adage, the best things are worth waiting for. Goal seeking becomes a useful tool to teach kids they need a plan to get important things accomplished. As kids learn from their character mentors to have goal-seeking adventures, they learn patience, a precious jewel in everyone’s character crown. Goal achievement is learned through waiting, working and walking in the direction of one’s personal dreams and desires. Thoreau said it best, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his own dreams and endeavors to live a life he has imagined, he shall meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
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