Goal Setting for Teens

Teaching financial literacy has been my passion. Over the years I’ve had an opportunity to speak to parents who want to know how to talk to their children about money and want tips to help them become more independent before they go off into the real world.

For many parents it seems like just yesterday that your children were on their way to kindergarten, but now that they’re in middle school things seem to be happening way too fast. Tweens seem to go from having play dates to group movie dates right in front of your eyes.

And they’re fashion conscious and brand sensitive far earlier than we ever were. This is all the more reason for us to help them get a financial grip on money and the need for saving by talking to them early and often about ways to save and spend money responsibly.

Here are a few things you can do to get your tween ready for the day when you’ll need to cut the strings and watch them spread their well-prepared financial wings.

Giving your tween an allowance is a great money move. It will help you as a parent reign in their budget-busting requests while teaching them the value of a dollar and saving for the things they really just “must” have.

In her book, “Kids and Money: Giving Them the Savvy to Succeed Financially,” author Jayne A. Pearl says this about giving your children a fixed spending budget. “Allowance is an effective way to start transmitting to your kids financial literacy, values, and decision-making skills.”

When tweens have access to money they can better understand the meaning of it and the proper ways to use it. Trying to help them understand the basics of money management using something that they have earned and saved for is powerful. Often that new “thing” they just had to have when you were paying for it becomes less important to them when they come to realize that it will greatly reduce the amount of money they will have left.

If your family doesn’t embrace the allowance concept but still wants to help your children have first-hand experience with money management, another way to teach tweens about money is through interactive learning experiences and board games such as:

Life
Payday
Monopoly Jr.
The Allowance Game and
Cashflow for Kids

These are all wonderful ways to teach lasting lessons in an entertaining way. Not only will these games help your child strengthen their math and problem solving abilities, they’ll also understand basic money concepts.

Finally, encourage your children to save with a purpose and if possible offer to add a small percentage to whatever they have saved. This teaches the lesson of compound interest and how money grows if left untouched.

The next time your child wants a new bike, skateboard or series of Karate lessons use it as a chance to challenge their desire for what they want by having them save for it. As an extra incentive agree to match their savings dollar for dollar up to a set amount or a specific period of time.

The benefit of this to you is that your child will develop discipline and a habit of not spending every dime they get their hands on. Plus, when you make the goal one that’s reachable even if they fall short, you can assist them so they will be encouraged to try again next time.

The biggest thing to remember is to encourage their new saving habits and find ways to support them so they’ll actually think of it as something fun. Once that happens you’ve created a situation that will develop a positive attitude toward saving for a lifetime!

There are millions of beautiful, young people that have the pre-requisites and desire to get into modeling, however only a very small percentage succeed. You may be wondering why and the answer to that is they just don’t have the right attitude.In order to become a successful model you will also need to have all of the following:Determination:Breaking into the modeling world can be very disheartening as you will face many setbacks along the way. You need to be prepared to be rejected many times before you get someone who is interested and this takes a certain type of character. You need to be determined and to keep going, most young people do not have this determination and simply give up before they make it.Professionalism:It is important to remember that modeling is a business and it should be treated as such. The photographers, agents, casting directors are all working to make a profit and they need a model they can rely on. You could be the most beautiful person in the world but you will struggle to get repeat work if you turn up late, don’t show up or are not prepared for your job.Good Work Ethic:Models with experience will testify to the fact that they very rarely have a steady stream of work. The best way to handle this is to focus on promoting yourself focusing on your strong points and you will quickly find you can bring in some work.Imagination:Remember that the way you get work is to market yourself to others and as with any other form of marketing, find your niche. Work out what makes you individual and focus on that. Put a lot of effort into putting your portfolio together and use your most striking, unique images to advertise yourself.Networking Skills:All good business people create networks of clients that are constantly growing. Actors, actresses and models are no different. You need to find ways to reach potential clients and generate more work and more clients from referrals and other network techniques. Of the clients you work with, ask them for referrals to other opportunities for you. And if a client was referred to you, always let them know who referred them. The common networking rule of thumb is that for every satisfied client you have they, in turn, will tell 2-5 others about you, but for every dissatisfied client, 10 potential new clients will hear the bad news. Never burn your bridges with clients. You may not want to work with them anymore, and that is fine, but never, never be rude or unprofessional. Always make it a goal to either work a number of times with a client or get referrals to others from them. Work makes work in this business.Discipline:Be prepared for work. Develop the discipline to keep your valuable assets, (smile, face, figure, or whatever else you model), in good shape. Have your portfolio ready when you get a go-see, (interview or test shoot), and have your promotional materials, (head shots, z-cards, and CVs), ready for any potential interview or marketing opportunity. This chance may not come around again.Persistence:Successful models are made, not born. They work at all aspects of what they do and they do not stop because of a few setbacks. They are determined to accomplish a goal and they are not easily stopped by petty excuses or fears of the unknown.A Plan of Action:Successful models have a direction, a plan of action. They set goals for their portfolio, their resume, their network of potential clients and the part of the market they want to work in, and they plan a way to achieve those goals.

No matter what type of business you operate – or plan to operate – there always needs to be clear goals in mind. The reason for this is that you can not march haphazardly towards success. Yes, there is a little luck to be found in the biographies of a number of rags to riches entrepreneurial success stories but there is a lot more cohesion than luck in these stories. Without clearly defined goals, then the ability to achieve one’s goals is greatly compromised. Goal setting is not a complicated process. Often, it merely involves looking at where your business is at the present devising where you want it to be and then drafting the necessary plans to get there. For example, if you operate an online subscription news service and want the number of subscribers to grow by 15% over the next year you may devise a direct email marketing plan to get there. Then, you follow through with you plan. Granted, it is not always possible to achieve the goals you set. Sometimes there are unforeseen circumstances that can undermine even the most brilliant plans. Case in point, if you are in the travel business and a recession hits then odds may be against any plans of company growth you may have had. But, when under the circumstances where the factors that derailed you goals are correctable then it is becomes prudent business sense to take the necessary steps to remove those obstacles to your goals in order to keep progressing forward. Now, that may sound like ominous words but it is not a call to start acting as ruthless as J.R. Ewing. It simple means you modify the means in which you achieve your goals. If that aforementioned email marketing strategy is not working it may be prudent to switch to a new marketing strategy. Not achieving your goals is not a crime if it yields critical information that you can use to help your business grow. After all, knowing what not to do is often as valuable as knowing what to do. Businesses are hardly static and market/industry changes can affect the goals of a business. This means a business needs to be flexible in defining its goals. On the surface, McDonald’s looks like a company that stays the same from year to year. But, if you were to look at the various image makeovers and marketing strategies it has followed over the past 50 years you will notice that it has always been a company that is in a state of flux. Perhaps your business needs to do the same.

Look throughout the world at those who have achieved the most in life. People like Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett. These are the people who have stretched their imaginations to unforeseen levels. They have dreamt at levels we have never imagined.  Their visions for what was possible was so far beyond anything any ordinary person would envision. Many people believe they have gotten lucky. The reality however, is that its that simple skill, of dreaming big, that has guided them to their success, fame, and fortunes.

You see, no one in this world has ever created or accomplished anything without first seeing it in their mind. The greatest achievers in human history have been those with the biggest and boldest goals and dreams. Life as we know it wouldn’t be what it is today without those individuals. But you too can be one of those people who shape the destiny of the world. Through your dreams, goals, and desires you have the power to create something just as extraordinary as the great leaders listed above. Through your dream, through your imagination, your mission and vision will come as soon as you release your perceived limitations, and allow your heart to drive your mind to your dreams.

Imagine what it will be like, when you look back on your accomplishments; when you have the opportunity to turn to all those who told you that you could not accomplish your dream. What will it feel like to turn to those people and smile, as without saying anything more, they know by that twinkle in your eye, you accomplished all you set out to achieve.

True leadership originates in a dream. A vision that calls you to action, that puts you in your unstoppable state of defying every odd that’s against you. The greatest leaders know only the standards set by their dreams of what is truly possible, and the best time to start dreaming big is now. No matter where you are in your life, it is never to early or late to broaden your vision of what’s possible.

Big dreams are where it all starts, from your earliest dreams of becoming an astronaut or baseball player, to your dreams of owning your own business, writing a book, or owning your dream car or home, if you do not dream of it first, you will never actualize it into your life.

Copyright (c) 2009 Meredith Liepelt

Goal setting is a critical skill to learn for any business owner. If you don’t know where you are going, “any road will get you there,” as was said so poetically in Alice in Wonderland. Without a clear understanding of where you are heading, you are almost guaranteed to become side-tracked by opportunities that will pull you off of your true course and original intention.

There are four simple things that you can do to help you define your goals and stay on track:

1. Create a Written “Contract.”Research shows that less than 5% of business owners actually write down their goals. However those who do write out their goals generate up to 10 times the revenue that others do! Now if that’s not incentive to take 30 minutes to write down your goals, I don’t know what is!

2. Know Thyself.Ask yourself why you want the goal. Dig deep to find out why it’s important to you. This will help you experience the root of your desire. For example, if your goal is to create an additional income stream of $20,000 in the next six months, make sure you know why that is important. Do you want to take the summer off? Go on vacation? Pay off your car? You can even post a picture of your goal in your office if that is helpful to you. Knowing the essence of why you want to reach a goal is extremely motivating!

3. Get Detailed.Create a list of all the different things you need to do to in order to reach your goal. For example, I brainstorm each step, write them individually on post-it notes and put them all on my wall. From there, I organize the post-it notes into categories and/or into a flow chart so I can see what needs to happen first, second and so forth. From there, I put each step into my calendar so I can be assured that if I just accomplish one or two things toward my goal on the assigned day, I will be directly on target to meet my goal.

4. Share.If you share your goals with a trusted and supportive resource, you are much more likely to achieve your goals. It takes courage to put yourself out there and tell others what your goals are, particularly if they are financial goals. But if you choose wisely, you’ll find the support to be uplifting and very helpful.

After experiencing the Induction and OWL phases of the Atkins diet, your next step is to enter the pre-maintenance phase. This phase will set you up for a lifetime of healthy and balanced eating and living. You should begin this phase as you come within 5 to 10 pounds of your target weight goal. Your weight loss will be slowed down even further but it is for a purpose. You want to learn the practices and habits that will determine your long-term success. In the OWL phase, you will be adding carbohydrate grams to your daily count in the increment of 5 grams per week. During pre-maintenance you will increase that to 10 grams per week. As long as you are continuing to shed weight (no matter how slowly it is coming off) you will continue to add grams. Ideally, toward the end of the pre-maintenance phase you will be losing less than one pound per week. According to the Atkins book, you should continue this phase until you get to your goal weight and can maintain it for a month. This process may take anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Your goal is to reach a state called “carbohydrate equilibrium.” This is your ideal carbohydrate intake and it will cause you to maintain your weight perfectly. During pre-maintenance you’ll get to try a wider variety of foods. Make sure to introduce new foods slowly and increase your carbohydrate intake at a measured pace. Don’t add 20 or 30 carb grams a week. Measuring out the increases in increments of 10 will give you a better idea of your personal carbohydrate count. Knowing this number will help set you up for long term weight management. Make sure to check with a carbohydrate counter resource book or a trusted website before you add a new food to your diet. Some examples of 10 carbohydrate gram foods include 1/3 of a cup of legumes, 1/2 an apple, 1/4 cup of potatoes and 1/2 cup of plain oatmeal. These foods can be included on a daily basis, and then increased the next week. Pre-maintenance is not a perfect process. It takes a delicate balance of carbohydrate counting and exercise to slow weight loss yet still move it forward. You’ll need to pay even closer attention than you have before to make sure that your carb gram increase is not resulting in an increase in weight. There is a fine line between gaining, maintaining and losing, and during pre-maintenance you are trying to find out just exactly where that line is. If you aren’t able to add carbohydrates without stalling your weight loss, you may have a high metabolic resistance. You will benefit from increasing your exercise regimen to get your metabolism burning at a higher level. For you, the pre-maintenance phase will resemble OWL more closely. Some people do a variation on pre-maintenance that allows them to have a treat once a week. Instead of adding 10 grams per day, they allow themselves a 20 to 30-carbohydrate gram treat a few times a week. Examples of the treat could be a piece of a fruit or a serving of sweet potatoes. A glass of white wine or beer also qualifies for this treat. This is a fun way to reward yourself and still be on the plan. Yet another way to do pre-maintenance is to average out your carbohydrate intake for the week. Since life is sometimes unpredictable, it can be helpful to have a bit of flexibility in your eating plan. For example, if your current carbohydrate level is at 70 grams, you can limit yourself to 50 grams one day. Then the next day, you can splurge a bit on a meal and have 90 grams for that day. However, only follow this method if it doesn’t create carbohydrate cravings. Sometimes excess carb grams on one day can make you crave them even more the next day. The pre-maintenance phase will give you the tools for long-term success. By learning to slowly increase your carbohydrate grams, you’ll have a better hold on the amount of carbohydrates that is right for you.

There sure is! Applying the Biblical word “plan” for goal setting, it’s clear that God has plans and so do people. God blesses righteous plans and blasts away ones that aren’t so righteous! Above all, goals and plans are subject to the will of God.

Is goal planning even Biblical? You bet! God gives people plans:

“[King David] gave [Solomon] the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. (1 Chronicles 28:12)

Don’t discount goal planning as being “worldly!” Not unless you want to discount God too. But there are evil plans in this world and plans that are opposite to His will and moral will. These he will frustrate.

“He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.” (Job 5:12)

The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.” (Psalm 33:10)

“Crafty” means the schemers, the no-good-doers, the plotters. The nations get into the act too. God works both on the individual and global planes of the world; He is sovereign! And he warns those who plot in the darkness and who plan apart from his known will.

“Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?’” (Isaiah 29:15)

“‘Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the LORD, ‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin…’” (Isaiah 30:1)

Did I mention not making evil plans? Goal planning for unethical means is bad. So is planning goals that take you right out of the mainstream of God’s will for your life. Now be careful here ? God’s river is big and wide. I don’t believe in a one-choice-or-you’re-out narrow view of God’s will for you. I believe that for the Christian, there are many paths to many good outcomes and God is there on all of them. But there is a general direction and flow to the outcomes and we can observe it if we care to.

So goals and plans can be good things!

“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” (Psalm 20:4)

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

And God has his sovereign plan! Planning and goal setting is a fine thing. But subject everything to the Lord’s guidance.

“But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” (Psalm 33:11)

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)

Biblical Advice about Plans

I love the book of Proverbs. Along with great advice for faith, business and life, comes this counsel about planning:

Don’t plan in a vacuum, but run your plans and goals past other people. You don’t want to do this with every goal and at every stage in the game, but you should with big and important plans. Especially if they impact other people.

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22)

Pray, pray some more, and then pray again! Surround your goals and plans with prayer and ask the Lord to bless you in their doing.

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3)

Ask God for wisdom as you plan and set goals. Involve him every step of the way as you go along and chart your progress. Don’t be afraid to make mid-course corrections as necessary.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Don’t forget the action part of planning! None of your work and thought will make a smidgen of difference if you don’t actually do something.

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5)

Planning isn’t only all right to do, it’s positively wonderful!

“But the noble person makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.” (Isaiah 32:8)

Why is it that merely saying the “D” word, you know “diet” brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work? I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn’t. Dieting is the kiss of death for many while a new phase in your life or lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will mean success for you and your fitness and health goals. Eating for some is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly give up eating all together as a smoker can give up cigarettes. I’m not applying by any means that giving up cigarettes is easy but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day? At that point you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits right? The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food. Isn’t this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically most of the foods we enjoy most) are strictly taboo. Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished. And no one likes to feel either of these things. Even worse however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us. This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together. In order to have real success you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets. Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating new healthy foods. Even if your goal is as simple as eating 5 vegetable servings a day it is a great place to start. Change your way of eating. Then change your way of seeing food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level. As the first pounds begin to drop you will begin to experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by. Do not think that long term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and begin again the very next day. This means that even if you fall completely “off the wagon” today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is in staying the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow. There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting and I know people who have failed in almost every one I can possibly imagine. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results. It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well being.

In my last post, I mentioned that we should set goal clearly and do it daily. Now, the question is, when is the best time in a day? Of course, the answer is in the morning. However, it should not be just anytime in the morning; it should be first thing in the morning! Yes! The first thing when you wake up, instead of brushing your teeth, you should rush to your desk, and start writing your daily goal!

I mentioned in my other posting that there are long-term goal and short-term goal (which for me I called it as daily goal). It is this daily goal that you need to write down everyday! It is important so that you are aware of your daily activities are geared and swift towards it. On top, in the morning, when you just awake, your Alpha wave is at its most active period and according to many scientists’ researches, Alpha wave is presence when a person is engaging into his superb learning mode!

Have you ever experienced, when you were young (or maybe you still doing it now), rushing to study as much as possible only at the night just before a test or examination, trying to utilise and grasp as much as you could; and unfortunately, those you studied earlier, usually tend to be forgotten and seems that they were never ever be a way to register in your mind, however, those that you had studied while you were almost dozed off, surprisingly, can be recalled easily during the exam! Did you ever asked yourself, did I really come across this subject? Why is it so? The answer is because of Alpha wave, which begin to sync in just when you doze off!

What I’m drifting here, it is important to write down your goal in the first thing in the morning, so that you can leverage on your morning Alpha wave which present in your just awaken brain so that you can subconsciously register it and deeply root it into your brain.

Alpha wave also present during at night just before you doze off. So you should also write down your daily goal at night, just before you turn for the bed! This action not only help you to review your day time activities if it gel with your daily goal, but also, help you to register again better, leveraging again on the alpha wave to sink into yourself about your daily goal!

Goal setting is like sharpening a knife. The more you sharpened it, the sharper it will be! Thus, best time to set goal is in the morning, first thing in the morning. And for best result, set again just before you doze off!

Try it! You will be amazed of the result and your goals begin to fall in place. You will be more aware of your behavior towards your daily activities. If it does not work, it’s OK! You will not lose anything! But what if it works? You are in no lost situation! So, just do it!