Mayhap many of our readers would come with the argument that they were self-motivated in childhood; that’s why others should also follow the same path. However, this argument is not justifiable because kids are different from each other.
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Some of them could be self-motivated ones, but some really need a little push from parents, teachers and even from elders. Parents can use different kinds of strategies to cultivate the feeling of self-belief and motivation in this regard. If you are also looking to know the right ways to motivate your child, then you must read our article where we are going to share promising approaches with you.
Set Short & Long-Term Goals
If you think you can motivate your child without building his vision and mission about what he wants to achieve in his life, then you are wrong. That’s why in the first stage, you would need to make the mind of kids towards their life aims. Then, you can divide these goals into short-term and long-term goals. Here, you should also help the children to set priorities of their social and academic lives.
For example, if your son is willing to be a doctor, then getting the degree of medicine is his long-term goal and getting good grades in science subjects could be a short-term goal. Keep in mind, your kids could be confused about their life goals, but you should teach them how to set goals.
Planning to Accomplish Objectives
Though some kids are considered smart in planning to accomplish their goals, but few really need help from guardians, teachers and parents. In this regard, the parent should consider various ways to achieve objectives with children.
Basically, children need help in planning because they are not experienced enough to plan everything themselves. Printable charts could help the child and could be a good way to motivate them about their objectives. You can make several plans like what will do if plan ‘A’ fails. This kind of planning also keeps your children away from disappointment because they know they should try the next plan if plan A, B or C fail.
Celebrate Achievements
After complete planning and execution, if your child accomplishes any goal, then you should celebrate. Yes, instead of taking credit of kid’s achievement, it is the prime duty of parents to celebrate the child’s success appropriately.
Though achievements enhance the level of motivation, their selves but commemorations also give a new kind of confidence to children that they can do anything. Withal, we would recommend parents to not go with expensive celebration parties and rare gifts. Only a small get together of family members with little words of appreciation would be enough.
An Environment of Healthy Competition
In the same token, the organization of healthy competition is another way to inspire children and push them up. In this regard, you don’t need to conduct a high-level competition but small house chores related contest between siblings, cooking games and comparison of test scores would be enough.
It has been noticed that some children don’t perform well in routine work, but they act in a smart manner when you assign any challenge to them. However, parents should always emphasize to tell the kids about the significance of healthy competitions and shouldn’t convert them into a jealous rivalry.
Peer Pressure
Probably, you have read several negative things about peer pressure, but many pieces of research proved that a considerable amount of peer pressure actually helps the students to improve academic performance. That’s why we would recommend the parents to use the peer pressure tactic to trigger kids to show their hidden talents and abilities.
In this way, children try to improve their grades and sports scores to make them equal to peer. However, it is also the responsibility of guardians to analyze deep where peer pressure is converting into stress or influencing the child pessimistically.
Sense of Authority
It has been experienced that children who think their parents control their lives are less motivated as compared to the ones who feel the authority to control their future. That’s why to motivate children effectively, parents should realize kids that today’s decisions would decide their fate.
In addition, if as a parent, you are a little reserved about the authority, then you should at least give them this feeling. Likewise, you can inspire your child about any profession with examples and then let him decide whether he wants to go with your suggested profession or not. Hopefully, you wouldn’t force the child in any kind of decision.
Focus on Process Instead of Results
Mostly we hear an eternal question from childhood about the consequences. Like in exam days, they continuously ask such kind of things, “would I get good grades”, “what would be the result of this hard work”, “what will happen if I wouldn’t become a doctor” etc.
All these questions show their anxiety and uncertainty about the results, and it is the responsibility of parents to teach them what is the more important process or results. Surely, parents should teach them that process or journey should be more vital, and they shouldn’t be worried about the consequences. With this approach, they wouldn’t much care about the results, and nothing would make them disappointed even the failures.
Tell Them the Importance of Hard Work
To motivate kids, it is also vital to tell them about the significance of hard work. Yes, children must have a belief in hard work as compared to talent. There is no doubt talented people could be beaten when they don’t focus on hard work.
Notably, it has been seen that many kids have a misconception that because they have sharp brain and IQ level like Einstein, that’s why they don’t need to make any effort. These kinds of children usually lost the big races of life as compared to kids with ordinary IQ level, and no hard work is the only reason for their failure.
Say ‘Ok’ to Mistakes
Many families don’t have a culture of giving an okay sign to mistakes which is totally wrong. Actually, nothing can give you the best lessons of your life that a mistake can provide you. That’s why making mistakes should be an ordinary thing in your family where children should try their best to learn a lesson from the mistake.
Unfortunately, mistakes are not being tolerated in many families because they think it would lead to blunders.
Though children should be questionable for their flaws, but you shouldn’t ignore the angle of learning from there. Likewise, Thomas Edison, who is the inventor of the light bulb, got success after 1,000 failures.
In one of his interviews, he experienced his 1,000 failed attempts in this manner. Thomas Edison said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” That’s why parents shouldn’t underrate the positive aspect of mistakes.
Reconsider Punishments & Rewards
The use of rewards and punishments to motivate children sounds tempting, but recent research doesn’t support their effectiveness. Though rewards and penalties could be used as a short-term and quick approach to motivate the child, but it doesn’t work in a long-term scenario. The promise of reward and punishment also becomes a big reason to disturb your relations with your child.
Secondly, such things would also make your child mentally attached to the joy of rewards or fear of punishment. As compared to this strategy, parents should motivate their kids by telling the benefits of a certain act. For example, if you want to stimulate your child’s focus towards studies, then you should share the benefits of getting education with them. You can tell them about the kids who don’t go to school due to financial and other problems and how they should avail this opportunity appropriately.
Final Words
At last, Mintbook would also suggest parents to play the role of mentor for their kids because it is hard to predict the attention of an outsider. However, parents always think about the betterment of their kids. That’s why instead of hiring anyone else to take advice about the future of kids, parents should take charge of it.
However, parents should work hard to mentor their children like a professional, and there is no issue if they join any course in this regard.
Hopefully, parents or our readers will definitely use our suggested ways to motivate children practically. You can use our tips in both ways either you are willing to improve the performance of your child in particular sports or an academic subject.
However, it is also important to understand for parents to evaluate what kind of motivation approach would be more effective according to the situation of their kid. In this regard, you can also contact any psychological consultant or even a physician because in many cases, it has been seen that poor health becomes the reason of less motivation in children.
In short, the main goal to share this article with our readers to provide them with the best ways to motivate children of all ages. You can also share your opinions with us by commenting below!
