4 Tips to Teaching Teens Goal-Setting

When made without proper planning, these goals unintentionally hurt a growth mindset, making a teen feel discouraged. They can even make a teen think “I can’t do this. I’m not good enough.”

We want our teenagers to develop a healthy and positive mindset by helping them set and achieve their goals.

Goal-setting benefits teenagers in multiple ways:

• Helps increase awareness of a teen’s strengths and weaknesses
• Defines reality and separates it from wishful thinking
• Encourages teens to prioritize matters aligned to their goals
• Helps teens become more responsible for their lives
• Improves teens' decision-making skills

As a parent, seeing your child achieve the goals you helped them set gives you a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

But most importantly, we need to include goal-setting in the school’s curriculum.

The school climate is a great place to introduce, teach, and practice effective goal-setting skills.

So, how do you teach teens about effective goal-setting?

1 - Encourage Them to Use the SMART Goal Method

An excellent way to teach teens goal-setting is through the SMART goal method, an established tool for setting goals used by almost every organization.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.

This criterion is highly influenced by Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory, but in a simpler way that anyone can implement.

In the following table, we explain the 5 acronyms of the SMART goals and provide examples to help you get the concept.

• SMART GOAL

• Specific

• Brief Description

• Ensure the goal is distinct enough to prove that the student has been successful

• Example

• Don’t say: “I want to get better grades in school”

• Say: “I will get all B’s and higher on my report card”

• SMART GOAL

• Measurable

• Brief Description

• A measurable goal is one whose results can be gauged quantitatively

• Example

• In this case, the teen’s progress can be measured by looking at their results in the next progress report

• SMART GOAL

• Attainable

• Brief Description

• The goal needs to be what a student can actually do

• Example

• (For a student who’s been scoring C’s and D’s)

• Unattainable: “I’ll make all straight A’s on my next exam”

• Attainable: “I’ll raise all my grades a letter higher on my next exam”

• SMART GOAL

• Relevant

• Brief Description

• The goals should be practical and possible to implement in real life

• Example

• Raising grades by a level is realistic, but is it relevant to the teen? Is it a goal they want to attain? Or one you expect them to attain?

• SMART GOAL

• Timely

• Brief Description

• Encourage the students to place a realistic time frame on their goals

• Example

• SMART goals can be short, medium, or long-term

• Don’t just wish to improve grades without a time frame

• Instead set targets, e.g. “I desire to have all B’s by the next progress report or semester”

One major barrier to teens attaining their goals is that they’re often too difficult to achieve. By implementing the SMART method, they can break down these goals into precise and manageable chunks, and create action plans to keep them focused until the end.

2 - Step Back and Let Them Be in Control

Teens have a deep need for autonomy and independence. Thus, they’ll rebel against any attempt to be controlled.

Parents and teachers have a great influence on teens’ choices, but it’s crucial to step back and allow them to chase after their own inspirations. So, ensure that the teenagers are in control of their goals throughout the goal-setting process.

This could be through encouraging them to practice planning, supporting them with tiny reminders, or rewarding their self-control.

When you go against your teen’s goals and dreams, you unconsciously push them down paths that will reduce their success and overall meaning in life. They may even end up dropping out of school.

While it’s necessary to impart wisdom to our students, we should aim to offer guidance and encouragement when they need help during goal-setting—not determining the exact goals for them.

The Positive Action curriculum promotes healthy learning environments and will always consider the teen’s needs first to help them obtain a sense of identity and independence.

"This is what school should be for all children everywhere…a place where they are safe to learn and grow." Kristin McMillan

3 - Connect Their Goals to the End Goal… Happiness!

We want our teens to have happiness on their terms. This could mean academic success, good health, or protection from physical bullying.

Related: What Is Physical Bullying and How to Prevent It?

Perhaps the best description of happiness we’ve seen was provided by Dr. Martin Seligman in his article “Positive Psychology: An Introduction”. He defines happiness in 3 facets:

• The first phase defines happiness as positive emotions like pleasure, joy, love, and gratitude. We achieve this element when we interact with friends, get good grades, or go on holidays.

• The second phase defines happiness as actions that cause time to stand still, also described as a state of “flow” by positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In this state, an individual is involved in a challenging task, works diligently, and makes progress while fully immersed in it. Those who love what they do (like athletes and musicians) operate under this element of happiness.

• The last phase involves finding meaning in our life accomplishments. It involves serving a purpose that’s bigger than us, like launching a foundation that caters to the homeless.

So if we want students to be happy, we’ll ensure they have fun even as they accomplish their goals. Most importantly, we want them to do what they love by focusing on the goals that mean the most to them and those around them.

As we teach them ways to set effective goals, we should direct them towards living an authentic life. An excellent way of achieving this is by instilling a positive self-concept. This could be through discussing their strengths and interests or using Positive Action’s guidance and counseling program to correct their negative thought patterns.

Expert Tip: The Counselor Kit is an essential teaching supplement to offer intensive support to teens who want to set meaningful goals but struggle with mental breakdowns.

The kit has lessons, activities, and guides for issues affecting teens’ mental health like violence, social skills, substance abuse, and many more.

4 - Keep Goal Setting as Engaging as Possible

When working with teenagers, we’re fighting a constant battle of distractions from social media, video games, and the opposite sex. It pays to exercise a lot of patience and self-discipline, but we can also introduce fun activities to boost their concentration.

Below are some ideas that will encourage effective goal setting for teen learners:

• Make goal setting a game: Goal setting can be used to promote healthy competition between teens. Introduce games to reward them when they achieve their goals. Some Positive Action programs (e.g. the Counselor Kit) include interesting board games to engage the teens.

• Begin with a bucket list: Ensure the teenager writes down all their goals, no matter how big they seem. According to research, noting down ideas improves understanding and memory retention. Seeing their goals on paper also increases their excitement and engagement.

• Make goal-setting a group activity: It’s helpful to include the teen’s family members in the goal-setting process. The Family Classes Kit engages families in positive actions in the home that help mold the teen’s goals.

• Incorporate technology and visual boards: Thanks to technology, you’re no longer limited to a pad and pencil. Students can use different expression tools like vision boards, posters, and mood boards. These will help them present their goals vividly through imagery, videos, music, or pictures.

Positive Action for Teaching Effective Goal-Setting

As you help your teens set goals, it’s important to note that they’re still learning and growing.

Goal-setting should not be a cause of stress and frustration. It should instead teach them relevant skills like time management and task prioritization that they’ll need in the future to become responsible and successful adults. Effective goal-setting also helps teenagers plan for their lives appropriately, take responsibility for their actions, celebrate their success, and learn from setbacks.

Positive Action programs are packed with intensive knowledge to help you teach teens effective goal-setting skills, whether as a parent or an educator.

Below is a success story of middle school students gaining confidence in a New York school:

After implementing Positive Action in their classroom, the students

• Broke out of their shells and freely talked about their feelings
• Were willing to volunteer in class activities
• Improved their interactions with each other
• Gained confidence and read out loud
• Analyzed their strengths and weaknesses

In fact, the Positive Action program was so successful that the school asked the organizers to return in the fall.

Click here for more success stories.