When someone reads the title, “Building Championship Habits”, a common misconception may lead them to believe it is sport related or based on the outcome of an event or the level of competition (national and international). Although I completely agree that competing or experiencing success at a high-level warrants the development and recognition of championship habits, youth can develop these habits in their every day routine that will help them later in life.
I tell my clients all the time – build championship habits. Here are two major trends in my mind for youth to work on; building habits that will aid in their development of personal, career, athletic, and academic success as they grow up.
1. Time Management
What is time management? For kids, time management is an opportunity to develop organizational skills and learn about estimating time to complete tasks. Research in business, sports, and personal motivations has show that successful people are able to time manage and remove procrastination from their daily lives.
What can kids learn with better time management skills?
More free time and less wasted time. Being efficient and effective and completing tasks and goals creates more time for youth to relax, have fun, and find new or pursue previous challenges/hobbies/passions. As they grow older, they begin to realize how much they can do in their schedule and have the confidence to prioritize and say yes or no to projects, events, or job opportunities that come up.
Less stress. Kids who can learn to manage their time in relation to school, sports, hobbies, and other events will limit the amount of procrastination and learn to work smart – not hard. Having less stress also shows a healthier lifestyle and better understanding of their own abilities and commitments.
Get more done. This one is clear and simple. Having better organizational skills leads to more time and more opportunity to get more done.
My recommendation for kids:
Teach your kids about time management. Give them responsibilities and let them learn about planning and maximizing their time.
Make time management fun! Don't sell it as a chore - sell it as a challenge!
Don’t take excuses – when a time is set a time should be upheld! Dinner at 5:30, or completing chores by a certain time; let kids understand about working and managing time to give them an opportunity to make mistakes and develop!
Get a calendar. Big, small, wall-size, hard or electronic copy – whatever size or visual aid is needed – having a calendar can teach kids to map out their commitments and assignments that are due. Learn how to work backwards from test and assignment dates in school helps them understand how much time they have and what other commitments (sports, hobbies) may be in the way to work around leading up to it.
2. Focus on the small things
The answer I immediately get from my clients when goal setting focuses only on the result. When they want to reach their goals quickly without a plan, they usually end up disappointed – something that is extremely common with kids and associated with giving up on any tough experiences or stretches that occur in their youth years. Coming up with an end goal(s) is the easy part. Wanting to get an A average, losing ten pounds, getting a job, or not being as nervous before sport games are all great goals – but cannot be accomplished overnight and without a plan.
Every single on of my clients so far has experienced this speed bump – where setting a goal is easy – but not knowing where to go from there. Once you have set your goal, it’s time to rip it apart with questions, thoughts, ideas, resources, and understanding what small successes could be in attaining that goal. I can truly say that seeing young kids with focus and attention to detail show leadership traits, motivation, and a sense of self-confidence as they grow up.
My recommendation for kids:
Sit down and write your goal out. Make it clear that this is something you want to achieve and will help you develop in some aspect of your life.
Give it a timeline. When do you want to be completed with this goal?
Give it a value. What specific grade average, weight, or feeling do you want to experience when this goal is completed?
Realize what could go wrong. Identify your barriers so you have a plan to counter attack them. Distracted by your phone while studying? Always shy away from a chance to speak up in class? Why?
Understand your resources. Who do you have around you to help? What could they do to help you achieve your goals? Speaking to people and/or teachers, mentors, influential figures about your goals helps support your belief in yourself and provides you with other who share support success for you.
Small success is still success. If you go up a few percent on a test, test a bit better in athletic training, or see an improvement of self-confidence in how you feel and carry yourself; then you have experienced positive gain on your goals.
Once you start experiencing more and more success over time – you will not be able to stop wanting more!
One great thing about life coaching is allowing kids to work at figuring out these habits themselves. Life coaching is not telling them what to do – but giving them the tools to utilize them on their own time to create their own success. I love when clients come tell me their own realizations – whether they have seen self-improvement or discovered different ways to achieve goals that they may not have thought of before (with me there or not).
My next blog will feature two more skills that I believe should be essential habits for kids looking to build championship habits. We all can be champions in what we do in life. It’s how we build and learn at a young age that those skills motivations, and passions allow us to be successful in what we do.
Interested in having your child work on their time management and goal setting journeys?
Contact today for more information through the website or the Facebook page!
Matt