This article is part of the following topics:   Motivating Your Teen

Motivate Your Teen to Succeed In the Classroom & in Real Life

Here are some tips you can give him:

• List goals. When goals are on paper, they seem more real. Have your teen post his goals where he can see them. When he’s about to turn on the TV, he’ll see his list. Watching a rerun of “The Brady Bunch” won’t help him make the team.

• Visualize success. Successful people, from Michael Jordan to Albert Einstein, all say the same thing. They imagined themselves in a situation where they were successful. Before a big test, your teen might try to imagine himself sitting in the classroom, looking at the test paper and knowing the answers. No, it won’t replace studying. But it will keep him motivated to hit the books again.

• Make sure they’re goals, not dreams. Goals are “dreams with deadlines.” If your teen says he wants to skate in the Olympics but never goes to practice, he has a dream. Only if he is taking action to make the dream a reality can he call it a goal.

• Start every practice or study session with something you like least. If your teen hates shooting free throws, that’s what he should do first. After he finishes, everything else will seem easy. If he hates studying foreign language vocabulary, get it out of the way first. Once it’s over, the rest of the study session will be more enjoyable.

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