Today I am going to give you some quick and easy tips to
children’s motivation: I did not invent them, they are based
on psychological theory.
When we think of motivation, we think of an audience of
adults singing “I Can Do It” at a Tony Robbins seminar,
purposeful motivation is just as important for children.
As a gym parent, you probably already realize how
important motivation for children is.
Teach your children about motivation and goals in a
early age will help them feel satisfied and successful
Adults
But how? Let’s discuss some ideas right now.
To start, introduce your children to the concept of
set goals by having a discussion about them.
I don’t mean to read to your children, but to have an exchange
discussion about what they would like to achieve – I don’t know
too serious, that’s enough for them at school.
Keep it simple, fun and light, and remember to let your
children have their say, listen to their ideas on how to achieve
goals and help develop them.
The next thing you can do is set up a goal system –> using the
goals you created during your discussion, make a chart
of achievable but challenging goals and put it somewhere
everyone can see it.
Ideas for goals might be to learn a new gymnastics skill.
within a certain period of time, ranking in the top 10 gymnasts
at the next meeting or achieve a certain grade level in the
next report card from school.
It’s also a good idea to set rewards for each goal:
include that on the goal sheet as well.
When a goal is reached, give your child their reward and
put a big check mark, smiley face or stamp on the goal
graph and gather everyone in the household to
witness the momentous occasion and give encouragement.
When a goal is not met, let your child know that they can see
they are working hard but they need to try harder – too
Make sure the goals aren’t too difficult!
Finally, set goals and follow them to
termination.
You can’t expect your child to achieve if he doesn’t have
discipline or self-control.
A great way to accomplish goals together is to take on a
home project. It could be painting the garage, planting a
new garden or even a craft project.
The idea is to show your child that great things are
achieved from constant work over a long period of time: too many
kids today give up if something can’t be accomplished during
commercial break!!
If you want to know more about motivation I suggest
check out my favorite book on the subject by Jason Michael
Grace:
http://gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/good/motivate.htm
Good luck.
Written by Murray G Hughes
http://www.gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/gymnastics-articles/motivation-article.htm