Build Your Student's Successful Tomorrow
By Shelley Ladin

“Imagine an eighty-foot rope stretched out before you,” says author Sean Covey in the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens. “Each foot represents one year of your life. Teenagehood is only seven years, such a short span of rope, but those seven affect the remaining sixty-one, for good or bad, in such a powerful way.”

This statement reminds us what little time we have to teach students important skills that can shape their lives. It also helps us realize the importance of training students to look beyond today. For most young people, long-range thinking doesn’t come naturally. It’s up to us to show students how to think, plan and set goals with the end result and future in mind.

If we’re thinking with the end in mind, let’s begin with the formula “Goal = Plan + Steps.” Whether your student is writing an essay or choosing a possible career, teach her to first set specific and measurable goals. From there, she should work backward, developing a plan and the steps to meet her goals.

How can this thought process be taught?  Begin when your student is young, teaching her to be a skilled thinker. Encourage her to ask questions and seek answers. When she must make a decision, help her to gather information, consider options and weigh possible outcomes.

Train your student to move from “thinking” to “planning.” When he has a school project, discuss his desired goals. Does he want a certain grade?  Does he want the project chosen for a school display?  What is his deadline for completion?  Help him to organize a written plan, along with specific steps, to meet these goals. Steps should include a timetable showing when various aspects of the project will be completed.

Teaching your student to plan also means letting him take responsibility for undesirable outcomes caused by poor planning. In addition, it involves teaching him to adjust and find alternatives when a plan must change course.

As your student grows older, she should learn to apply “Goal = Plan + Steps” beyond single projects. Encourage her to use the same approach in a broader, more long-term way. Still thinking with the end result in mind, she should work toward college and career. Encourage her to have a vision for the future and to develop a plan plus steps to get there. Remind students that “No Vision = No Direction.”

Stress to your student the importance of writing and revisiting goals on a regular basis. An older but often cited Harvard University study supports the theory that people with written goals are more successful. The study found that only 3% of Harvard Business School graduates in 1979 had specific, written goals for their business and life. Ten years later, these same students were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97%.

As parents, we want our students to live happy and productive lives. When we teach and demonstrate the power of goal setting, planning and thought, we give our students the tools to begin building a successful tomorrow.

 

Shelley Ladin, college career and life coach specializing in working with high school,college students and professionals in achieving their career goals.

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