A New Year and a New Focus on Life Habits

Did your teen make a resolution for the new year and is already struggling to stick with or achieve their goal? Why not take a different approach that encourages your teen to develop some lifelong habits?

By developing lifelong habits, your teen will naturally achieve smaller goals that they may have for themselves. By focusing on the long term, rather than the short term, your teen will learn skills that they can use for whatever it is they do in life.

What are some effective habits that your teen should be focusing on? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey as explained by Education.com provides skills for teens to use on a daily basis. These are the seven habits and how to utilize them:

Be Proactive

Teens need to begin by establishing priorities. Once this is done, they need to be the ones that are responsible for the tasks at hand. By doing this, they learn to take responsibility for actions and not place blame on others.

Begin with the End in Mind

When setting goals, help your teen have a vision for the end result. In particular, what is their goal in life and what vision do they have for their future. Then help them create a plan and direction to get to that end goal.

Put First Things First

Learning how to prioritize is an important life skill. Teens can then focus on what is most important in life. Learning this time management skill will help propel them through tough times. Learning and understanding time management will help propel your teen through college and their professional years.

Think Win-Win

Sometimes we can be self-centered, so it is important for teens to look at relationships in a way that benefits both sides. By having a mindset of win-win, your teen will learn how to look at things from multiple perspectives and determine a solution that works for both sides.

Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

A skill that is becoming lost, is active listening. We are so busy trying to get our thoughts out, that we sometimes don’t fully understand the full picture. By encouraging your teen to first listen to others, they will be better able to communicate with others.

Synergize

There is an old saying, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” This is so true because we all have an idea on what is the best way or the right way to do something. Encourage your teen when working with others that both ideas might be valid and can actually lead to a better idea.

Sharpen the Saw

Teens can be so busy and pulled in so many directions. Remind them that it is important to take a breather and renew. This could be done in many ways but should be ways that strengthen our hearts, brains, souls, and minds.

These habits will not only help through the teen years but will provide a solid foundation for their entire lives. However, if you are struggling with helping your teen, a professional teen counselor can help your teen to build skills to be successful now and in the future.