Give your children the best opportunity to succeed in adult life, by teaching them about goal setting and self-discipline from a young age.

Like any parent, you would love to give your child every possible tool to enable them to become happy, healthy and well-adjusted adults. Goal setting and achieving these goals through hard work and self-discipline is one of the many ways in which you can equip your child to achieve future success.

But don’t worry; it’s not all about schoolbooks and timetables. It can be a fun, family activity. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Make a Family Dream Bucket

Gather the whole crew and give each family member a piece of paper. Ask them to write down a bucket-list of at least five things they’d like to achieve personally in the year. Next, have a brainstorm and decide on the goals you’d like to achieve as a family together. At the end of the year, grab the lists and see who’s come the closest to reaching all of their goals. If your family goal is to go to the beach in December, develop a game plan as to how everyone is going to contribute to saving towards that dream vacation. This exercise allows your family to articulate their objectives in a safe space and enables you to work with them to help them get there.

Vision Boards

Another way in which to get your kids to visualise their goals is to get them to design their own vision boards. Grab a couple of old magazines, scissors, markers, cardboard and some glue to get them started. Ask them to cut out pictures of the things they’d like to achieve. This allows them to visualise their target and subconsciously connect to a way in which to get there. Not only is this a fun, arts and crafts exercise, but it also allows your kids to share their hopes and dreams with you. Once completed, put the poster in their bedroom to keep the goals top-of-mind.

Ask Fun Questions At Dinnertime

Ask your kids fun questions that allow them to expand their mindset and consider a world of possibilities. Ask them what they’d do if they won the lottery tomorrow. Ask them what they would do if they were President. Ask them what they would wish for if a genie appeared and gave them 3 wishes. Of course, their responses may ben completely unachievable but you can help shape them into simpler, more achievable goals in the short-term.

Make A Goal Ladder

Having a big dream is easy but achieving it is another story. It often helps to break the big goal into several smaller goals that will help them get their final prize. If your child wants to be a Hollywood stuntman, then it may help to start with some karate-lessons and gymnastics. Start with a big poster and put the dream goal at the top. Then draw a ladder leading up to the final goal with steps on how to get there. Once your child has achieved the first step in the ladder, you can move onto the next. It’s amazing what progress you can make this way!

Enjoy watching your kids flourish with the help of a bit of creativity, guidance and discipline. Trust us, they will thank you later.