Setting goals.

Well, the term break is coming to an end and then it will be back to the usual routine of school, studies and fun. Soon it will also be time to get all three sons thinking about their goals for the final term of school.

 I started this tradition when Mr.14 was in year 3. He needed a bit of a helping hand in focussing on his work and getting more proactive in his approach. I thought it would be a good idea for him to take ownership of his work and achievements. I asked him to set his goals for the term and he also had to work out how he was going to achieve them. Setting goals gave him something very concrete to work towards. He also listed down possible rewards that he could get for achieving those goals.

There was a noticeable difference in his work and work ethic by the time he got to year 4. Following his success, I started the eldest on goal setting too. And now I have Mr.9 setting his goals.

My rationale behind this was very simple. How can one achieve something or aspire to achieve something if one doesn't know what it is? I could set them all the goals I wanted but then they would be my goals, not theirs. The motivation is much stronger to achieve your own goals rather than someone else's.

The rules to the goal setting is very simple.

• They have to list only 2 goals and they have to be very specific. That involves asking them a lot of questions and getting them to think about what they want. If the goals are too generic then achieving them can become quite difficult.
• They have to work out what they have to do in order to achieve that goal.
• They have to let me know who is going to help them and how.
• Lastly, they have to list some rewards that they can get.
• They, then, write it up and put it somewhere they can see it.

Yes, it does work.

 

Faith

Imagine, if you will, the following scene. A little child is being tossed up into the air by his/her parent and caught when they come down. The child's initial reaction is one of shock - accompanied with tears and wails, which soon die away when realisation dawns that he is safe in the parent's arms once again. The parent then tosses the child up again. The second reaction is horror with tears following soon after, but this time they subside quicker. By the fourth or fifth toss the child no longer displays shock or horror. In fact, he/she is now enjoying the experience and is soon laughing at every toss and is begging for more.

There are three points of view to this situation. One is the child's, the other is the parent's and the third is an outsider.

The outsider is a bystander - he is an observer. He observes the child's initial reactions and questions the parent's intentions (and quite often their sanity!). He doesn't see the purpose of putting a child through that trying experience no matter how brief and temporary the trial may be.

The parent is a participant. The parent knows what he is doing - he knows his capabilities and those of his child. He will only toss up a child who is old enough to cope with the experience; he is not about to toss up a newborn baby.

Then, the child. He is a participant too - initially unknowing but very soon a keen and eager participant. He looks forward to repeating the whole exercise. What makes it fun for him? The fact that he is, for a moment, flying? No. The real reason is the total confidence that he will be caught safely and securely by his parent.

That confidence is FAITH.

...and having faith means being an active participant - not a bystander.


 

Blog name

The reason behind the name of my blog?

First - HOPE. Such a simple word but it has immense power. Hope gives us a reason to live: a reason to strive for something more, something better. I have a few mottos that I live by and my favourite one is "Umeed pe toh duniya kayam hai". It is in Urdu and roughly translates to "the world is sustained by faith".

Next - DREAM. I am not talking about what we experience when we sleep, but rather the ideal that we would like to see eventuate. We all talk about our "dream jobs" and "dream holidays". If we create a scenario that we would like to be true, then we would be able to put our energies towards making it a reality.

Lastly - SMILE. A smile will always make you feel better. It doesn't matter who is doing the smiling. I've loved smiley faces since I was a little girl and would always sign my letters with the words "Smile a mile" followed by a smiley face. (This goes back to the late 70s - so I guess I was ahead of my time using a 'signature' and an 'emoticon' in my 'snail mail'!)





   

New chapter

Today I start a new chapter in my journey through cyber-space.
I have been thinking about blogging for quite some time but always managed to find reasons to put it off. Well, no more!! I've signed up and am going to jump into the world of blogs. Time will tell if I sink or swim. Being the positive thinker that I am, I'm leaning towards the swimming part.