Goal Based Motivation

A man dies and found himself in a beautiful place, surrounded by every conceivable comfort. A white jacketed man came to him and said, "You may have anything you choose - any food - any pleasure - any kind of entertainment." The man was delighted, and for many days he sampled all the delicacies and experiences of which he had dreamed on earth. But one day he grew bored with all of it, and calling the attendant to him, he said, "I'm tired of all this. I need something to do. What kind of work can you give me?"
The attendant sadly shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry sir. That's one thing we can't do for you. There is no work here for you."
To which the man answered, "That's a fine thing. I might as well be in hell."
The attendant said softly, "Where do you think you are?"

If I can summarize my five years of experience of working with children in one line then I would say, “Children love to work, to do, to learn. Work is a fundamental need we all have. However, one needs to understand that work is a mean, not an end. When we say you should do your homework well, the homework becomes the end in itself. However, if you say for you to become a great scientist you need to do the homework well, then (provided I want to become a great scientist) I will go ahead and do the homework nicely. TV watching seems to be the biggest child related problem in urban house holds. My contention is that children watch TV because they have nothing better to do! If you want me not to watch TV, give me something which is more exciting to do. And what is exciting to be motivating should be meaningful. And what is meaningful to be motivating should be challenging. And what is challenging to be motivating should be achievable.

Each one of us has our own motivation to do the work which we hold so dear! As adults we submerge our days, night and sometimes weekends in work. And the motivation comes from our goals, the sense of achievement we get by achieving what we set out for. The trick then is to set challenging goals, show how they are meaningful, and let my ingenuity take over the effort to achieve them.

Here are some guidelines to do this goals based motivation with children:

But first - Check and set positive beliefs – both in your mind and children’s mind. Believe that your child wants to do lot of work (this is especially true when you child is not doing). Only if you believe, then only you can follow these steps. If you believe that your child isn’t that kind – you will soon give up.

Make the goals Meaningful: 

Have you noticed how effortlessly children learn their mother tongue or learn how to walk. Simply because they want it so much. Many goals seem artificial to children – specially the way we create “shoulds” around them. My favorite is “you should learn history". The way it was presented to me (when I was a child), it was quite meaningless. However, in Geniekids when we gave children the task of comparing ‘being a king’ to ‘being a prime minister’ – children not only could relate it to their life and hence wanted to know more about kings and their kingdoms, but also thoroughly enjoyed it.

Make the goals exciting:

This is easy as when children set their own goals they are pretty excited about them. So the key is to let children set their own goals. The key to children setting goals is to give choice. Do you want to make a book about whales, make a power point presentation about them, or a dance drama show about them or a collage in clay! (Give this option to a seven year old and he will turn the world of whales upside down). Surprisingly this can be done with almost any topic. Moreover, excitement is contagious. If we also show excitement about their goals it adds to the effect.

Make the goals challenging, yet achievable:   

 This requires a little hit and trial approach. Which means it requires us to be flexible. Because what is simply achievable by one, might be a lot challenging to another. The rule is whatever the child guns for; ask him or her to write it down – in specific detail. Writing brings clarify between the guide and the doer (parent and the child). While this may look obvious, this is also the most obviously overlooked step. Check out the difference between: “I want to make a doll house” and “I want to make a doll house at least big enough for my these two dolls, with at least three rooms, a garden and a place to store all my dolls items”. Another example – compare: “I will come score more than 80% in 8th standard" and “I will score more than 90 in English and Science, more than 80 in Maths and Social Studies and more than 70 in Hindi. Moreover I will study enough to be able to maintain these percentages in across all tests and I will spend more time on English and science as I like them”.

Successful people are not only more diligent but importantly know for what they are working. Since their goals are clear, they are more persevering, more resilient and more focused. And most importantly they enjoy what they are doing. For them the work is not work, but joy!Also remember, "Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction". 

By Ratnesh & Aditi Mathur
For www.geniekids.com

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