Youth Personal Life Area: 5 Important Areas In Developing Good Skills and Perspectives

Introduction

The personal area of a child’s life is a very important one regarding his or her growth and development. It is essential for the youth to learn skills and develop good attitudes to work with throughout his or her life. While children can and should have fun, they should also be given the opportunity to learn about their abilities and how they can help in contributing to the world around them.

Responsibility

A key aspect of the personal area of a child’s life is responsibility. This can be a difficult topic to approach, but one that can benefit the child greatly over the rest of his or her life if addressed early on. Every child wants to have fun, but it is important for him or her to learn the value of being responsible to those around him or her. There are a few different areas of responsibility that children can learn about, including character, contribution, goal-setting, commitment, and education. 

Character

Children need to understand the importance of character, and how it can help them in the long-term. Character is built through courage, integrity, and experience, to name a few attributes, and is developed throughout an individual’s lifetime. While children can gain a good deal of understanding and values from parents and teachers, they have character instilled in them through actions and lessons from consequences. For example, a youth can be taught by his parent that you should “give 100% in sports,” but he or she can only learn by actually going out and playing hard in a game of soccer. Similarly, a child can be told by his teacher that he or she should speak up, but may need to talk to others in a class group to gain courage.

You can teach kids about character through lessons and examples, then encourage them to go out and gain experience and grow from it. There are plenty of people to talk about and learn from such as Abraham Lincoln (“Honest Abe”), Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. You can also tell them stories of inspiration and persistence such as those of great athletes and successful entrepreneurs.

Commitment

An important aspect of responsibility in the personal area of a child’s life is commitment. It may be common to believe that individuals do not need to learn about or work on commitment until they become adults, but if you learn about it at a young age, you can continue to make and keep them as you mature and get older. Forms of commitment should be simpler for a youth than for an adult, and they should receive plenty of support in keeping up with them. They can be as simple as completing homework, practicing sports, and finishing chores. Kids can really benefit in learning about more long-term commitment by participating in and sticking with youth groups such as Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts. 

A good way to encourage children to commit to anything is through dream planning. Kids can write out a description of a dream that they have, and then reach for it through  positive goal-setting, as discussed in the next few paragraphs. This will help them to stay on track with an activity, and to make progress. 

Goal-setting

Even young children can benefit from the practice of goal-setting. Simply by writing down what they hope to do and achieve, they can gain a sense of accomplishment when their goals are met. I outlined the basics of goal-setting in the book Build Your World. While that book is more geared toward adults, kids can also set goals, just in a simpler fashion.

For children, as well as adults, goals should be thought of as “dreams on paper”, where you think about what dreams you would like to reach, and write down what you need to do to get there. They should come from the “dream planning” mentioned before with commitments, and be developed from those descriptions. 

Children have the same life areas to cover as adults, just simpler responsibilities. While an adult may have as a personal goal to “arrange my calendar in order of listed priorities,” a child’s personal goal may be to “follow my weekly schedule of activities.” Similarly, an adult’s career goal may be to “seek a position which will give me additional experience in my chosen field,” a child’s goal might be ”I would like to be an honor student this semester.”

The key for children is for them to make sure their goals are reasonable and attainable. This prevents them from putting any extra pressure on themselves in trying to reach goals that are not realistic. They also need to set realistic goals so that they can gain confidence and self-esteem by meeting their goals.

A fun and effective way for children to aim for their goals is through a progress chart. This can simply have the days of the week and the activities arranged with places to put checkmarks or stars on completed activities. This way, it is easy to track what is being accomplished, and how much progress is being made toward the set goal.

Contribution

Every child needs to learn the value of making a contribution. This is essential in a youth learning about how to be responsible to others and their environment. Part of growing up is learning how to be less concerned about yourself, and more concerned about the well-being of others. For kids, this means being shown how to take time to help others and take care of what’s around them. 

There are many ways to encourage children to make a contribution. They can start at home, by doing chores or helping prepare meals. At school, they can take part in group activities or take part in a play. Other opportunities include helping with fundraisers, volunteering, or cleanup projects. These type of activities allow the youth to use his or her abilities to better their surroundings and help others, which is a key part of responsibility.

Education

Education is a major part of a child’s life. Kids go to school for most of the day and learn about a number of subjects. Afterward, they are still required to do homework and study at home. Education is not just limited to schoolwork and classrooms, however. It can be found in numerous areas, and learned about in many ways. 

You can teach your child that learning is a lifelong process, and should be a positive one. Youths can benefit from going to places outside of school, such as museums, the zoo, natural parks, and even recreation centers. They should be supported in self-learning, such as reading books and using educational computer programs. This way they can benefit from a comprehensive array of learning experiences. 

Conclusion

These are some of the main ways that a child can develop his or her skills and abilities, and mature over time toward success in adulthood. If you are a youth program professional, you can download my free e-book, The Youth Program Professional’s Guide To Success, for classes, activities, and events to help youth along that road.