Goal Setting with Kids - Thinking from the End

Ever taught your kids what it means to "Think from the end"? If you are serious about bringing your children up to be habitual goal setters, what a great lesson to teach them - and a very easy one too!

I was playing with my little niece Talia the other week. At eight years old she is a bright, well-spoken kid and fantastic company. She had a coloring and activity book so we colored together for quite some time (I am not looking forward to the time when she gets too old to enjoy doing that, as I love coloring with her when we visit the family!)

Anyway, we then came across a maze, which Talia took a felt tip pen to and without further ado proceeded to solve in about 30 seconds. I was interested to see that she did in fact, START FROM THE END, in other words instead of starting at the 'start here' entry to the maze, she put her pen on the cheese (or whatever it was, I forget) at the centre of the maze and quickly found her way out. Which is, of course, the quickest way to solve a maze!

It was a great opportunity for me to point out to her how "Thinking from the End", similar to how she had solved her maze so quickly, can help kids and adults alike with goal setting. She was quick to understand that if we define our goals and start with thinking with what we want to achieve, then the pathways to achieving our goals will be that much smoother!