Our desire for certain things in life is a basic human want. Why do we desire those things in particular? Because of our perception that those things will cause us to feel happy. Humans by nature associate different feelings to different things, which is why we each want different things in life. Whether you desire to land a record deal, to run a marathon, to have your own family or to have your own fashion line, we each associate pleasure to the attainment of different things based on our values.
Taking this basic human need of wanting things and applying it at school-level to the young and impressionable minds of our future, is something that needs to be implemented in all schools.
Many students across the world have many things they would like to accomplish both today and later in life; they may just not know how to actually formulate it as a cohesive thought and be able to express it. Students need to see relatable examples. Many students, especially those between grades five and university, have in my observation a very difficult time identifying, mapping out, implementing and setting down measurable action steps toward that final result.
I strongly believe that school boards (public, private and catholic) have the awesome task and responsibility to educate students on goal-setting, leading to the empowerment of students. In my classroom, my seminars and my writing, I stress the need for school boards to take the time and invest the resources to implement such a Program, one that all students will need throughout their lives. After all, how can we expect them to do great things in their lives and implement and follow-through on great ideas if we don’t teach them the steps required to doing this? Students need to see, understand, analyze and be able to compute the complete process of working backward from a desired goal and be able to set down the action steps from which they can actually measure their results.
Stemming from this idea, many recognize that humans sometimes fail at what they are trying to accomplish and feel discouraged, causing them to give up. The education of goal-setting and empowerment must incorporate the idea that at some point in time, students may very well fail at a certain step, but that the lesson (the trick) is to learn from the mistakes, make necessary changes, and continue to strive for their goal using this new approach. Teaching this from an early age will, I believe, lead to priceless results for our future generations and our future. As our society becomes more and more sophisticated, and with the free-sharing of ideas and resources, there are so many tools and resources at students’ and teachers’ disposal that will assist in this all-important process.
As a former student in both the private and catholic school and as a present-day educator, I know that there is very little (if any), real time and resources dedicated to learning about the power of goal-setting, the idea of focus and attraction, or being aware of the role that the Universe (and whichever Higher Power you choose to believe in) plays in assisting us in achieving our goals.
It is scientifically proven that the human mind gets better with practice. We need to start teaching our children from an early age that it’s right and good to have goals to how to achieve them. One of the first reactions I ever received from my classes when I started talking to them about this was sheer surprise that they were allowed to explore, talk about, share and even be encouraged to want certain things, be it school-related or otherwise. On top of that, they couldn’t wait to hear about how they could begin banishing the fear-based thinking that goals are boring or that they have to want certain things that they don’t really connect with. The juices really started to flow when I showed them how to break down that goal (that right now seems unsurmountable) into smaller pieces and action steps, and that they could actually get started immediately on their goals.
Let’s do ourselves and our future generations, (and let’s face it, those who will be paying the taxes that will be our pensions), the great favor of showing them how to make great things happen and how to make our world a better place, not just talk about goals in some dreamy, abstract way!
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Often times as parents, we’re inclined to shelter our kids from the stresses of the world. As a result, do we tend to neglect setting goal and targets for our kids? Are there any schools out there teaching goal setting? If so, how are they doing it?
We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below or via email
