Goals with Kids
Home-Centered Goal Setting Course
Table of Content
Lesson 1 – Goal Terrain
Lesson 2 – Failure Moments
Lesson 3 – Goal Loops
Lesson 4 – Goals vs Goal Loops
Lesson 5 – Outcome, Purpose & Takeaway
Lesson 6 – Goal framework with 7 strategies
Lesson 7 – Brainstorm often
Lesson 8 – Who Owns the Goal?
Lesson 9 – Design Your Goal
Lesson 10 – Create Associative Reminders
Lesson 11 – Goal Effort
Lesson 12 – Track a Goal
Lesson 13 – Check-in With Your Goal
Lesson 14 – Adjust & Declutter Your Goals
Lesson 15 – Goal Traction
This bonus course gives you a step-by-step process for getting kids interested in learning about goals.
This Podcast Series teaches you how to start your own goal journal.
Welcome to goals
Goal Foundations
Foundation principles and tools for engaging with the goals you set
In just 5 lessons, you'll learn the foundation framework of Goals with Kids. With this framework and the Goal Loop tool, you'll be able to take a fresh look and turn any goal around.
Lessons 1-5
If you ask someone to draw a goal plan on a chalkboard and you get straight lines, ladders, and steps. In real life our goals are laid out on the terrain of our lives and our unpredictable futures. A goal framework built on goal terrain gives us better traction.
Worksheet: Zoom Out
The Zoom Out Worksheet helps you practice the skill of centering yourself in your goal, zooming out to get the big picture, then zooming back in to you next action steps. The questions on this worksheet give you perspective on your goal.
Lesson 2
Failure Moment
No one likes to fail. Even if we know failure is necessary for success and that everyone fails, no one likes it. Why? Because it feels bad. In a failure moment we often hide, pretend, quit, or numb. What can we do instead? Just like we practice falling in Judo, we can practice the skill of failing in goals.
Worksheet: Failure Moment
It feels bad to fail and we sometimes get stuck. This worksheet helps you identify what you’re feeling and create a willingness to experience the discomfort of failure on the way to your goal. It captures what you’ve learned from the experience and helps you brainstorm options around your obstacles. Remember: It’s all terrain.
Goal Loops
We cross the terrain of our goals with tiny action steps called goal loops. When we get stuck or want to check in with our goal, there are three important questions to ask: 1. What went well and why?. 2. What didn’t go well? 3. What did you learn?
Worksheet: Goal Loops
Worksheet: Goal Loops
This worksheet introduces the idea of goal loops and helps you practice the three questions to evaluate a piece of effort. You can choose goal effort or something you recently did to practice goal looping.
Goals vs Goal Loops
Understanding the difference between Goals and Goal Loops gives us power over our goals. Goals are like having a destination on a map. Goal Loops are like checking in with the map. Goals boss us around, but goal loops put us in charge.
Outcome, Purpose, & Takeaways
During the lifespan of a goal it’s easy to mix up the outcome you want, the purpose for setting the goal, and the takeaways you learn in the process. Getting clear on outcomes, purposes, and takeaways helps us evaluate the success of our goals.
Worksheet: Outcome Purpose Takeaway
Worksheet: Outcome Purpose Takeaway
This worksheet gives you room to explore the outcome, purpose, and takeaways of your goal.
Goal Traction
7 step framework for looping through goals
The next 10 lessons take you through a 7-step framework for looping through goals. You'll Learn 7 different ways to get traction on your goals. With this framework and the worksheets, you'll be able to take a fresh look at any goal and turn it around or let it go. If you have the Goal Getters Book, read chapters 1-3 and chapter 13 for even more ideas on goal traction.
Lessons 6-15
Lesson 6
Intro to Goal Traction
We set goals because we have a vision of what we want to accomplish in the future. Actually getting there can be tricky. You need traction, or actual movement toward your goals. This course is all about specific ways to get traction on your goals.
Lesson 7
Brainstorm
Brainstorming is a skill. We brainstorm possible goals to choose, which outcomes we actually want for our goals, and what our next steps are throughout our goal. To brainstorm, we write the ideas down. No judging! Have at least one crazy idea in the mix, and brainstorm as many ideas as you can think of.
Worksheet: Brainstorm a Goal
This worksheet is broken down into two parts. The instructions have lots of questions to help you brainstorm a variety of possible goals. The worksheet give you a place to brainstorm physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual goals.
Lesson 8
Who Owns the Goal
No one likes to be told what to do. But sometimes we choose goals that aren’t our own, that we think we “SHOULD” do. You can own a goal for yourself by unpacking who is asking you to do the goal. You can own a goal for yourself by choosing only goals you really want.
Worksheet: Who Owns the Goal?
Worksheet: Who Owns the Goal?
This worksheet helps you explore who really wants you to do the goal you’ve selected. It helps you get rid of hovering expectations and decide if you want to own this goal for yourself.
Lesson 9
Choose a Goal
When you choose a goal to work on, it helps to build a solid goal you really want. These 16 questions for goal design will guide you in creating a goal with a clear path. You’ll build the goal you really want instead of typical goals you never even start.
Worksheet: Build
Worksheet:Build a Goal
This worksheet asks a series of questions to help you build a clear, specific goal that you actually want to do.
Lesson 10
Remember a Goal
You can’t achieve a goal if you don’t remember to do what you planned. You can’t remember on command, but you can set up reminders. Remembering is associative, so we create reminders that will show up when and where we need them. And don’t forget to practice responding to the reminders you set up.
Worksheet: Remember a Goal
Worksheet: Remember a Goal
Remembering is associative, so be specific and set up reminders where and when you want to do the goal. Practice responding to your memory aid. You may need to include a note reminding you of your purpose and autonomy.
Lesson 11
Effort a Goal
Effort moves our goals forward. But what we plan isn’t how it works out, so goal effort includes being flexible, evaluating often, and goal looping. Effort can be physical, mental, emotional, and motivational. It’s not just about doing hard things. aIt’s also about doing awkward, boring, and nerve-wracking things.
Worksheet: Willingness
Worksheet: Willingness
What are you willing to experience on your way to a goal? What urges, emotions, thoughts, or failures are you willing to experience, knowing they are just part of the goal terrain? This worksheet helps you anticipate obstacles so they don’t trip you up.
Lesson 12
Track a Goal
Tracking a goal gives us good data. It makes our progress visible so we don’t take it for granted. We can track with tallies, logs, journaling, phone apps, or marble jars. Not all goals need tracking. Do what’s useful for as long as it’s useful. Avoid daily streaks. See this YoutubeVideo by Researcher Teresa Amabile on tracking your small wins.
Worksheet: Track a Goal
Worksheet: Track a Goal
There are lots of ways to track a goal. This simple worksheet helps you think about the small wins or pieces of progress that you can track for your goal. Can I tally something? Do I need a log? Can I map the steps to get to my goal? Do I need to track this goal at all?
Lesson 13
Evaluate a Goal
The word evaluate is unpleasant – no one likes to be judged. But when we evaluate a goal we’re really getting some distance from it, separating it from ourselves, and taking a minute to check in, see how it’s going, and taking an honest look at where we are. It prepares us for pivoting or adjusting our goal so we can move forward.
Worksheet: Evaluate with Goal Loops
Worksheet: Evaluate with Goal Loops
At any point in your goal, you can pause a minute and evaluate your progress. These three questions help you build a basis of strength and progress, face and learn from the setbacks and failures, and put it all behind us so we can start fresh with the next stage of our goal.
Lesson 14
Adjust a Goal
Between evaluating this chunk of your goal and launching the next chunk, there is space to adjust your goal. As you check in with your goals, you can adjust the outcome, the size, or your next step. You can add or remove reminders or tracking. Bank your progress and what you’ve learned so far. And celebrate! You can also thank a goal for its use and let it go.
Worksheet: Adjust a Goal
Worksheet: Adjust a Goal
Do you want to keep working on this goal? This worksheet helps you record your goal progress, adjust your next steps, or decide to stop working on a goal. It helps you celebrate your progress so far and figure out what’s next.
Lesson 15
Goal Traction
Getting traction on your goals is like the tines of a gear engaging and moving a wheel forward. To get your goal moving, learn to honor the difficulty of what your are trying to accomplish, see the goal through-line and the actions that will get you there, and don’t wait for someone else to rescue you or get you started. No one is coming.
Worksheet: Goal Traction
Worksheet: Goal Traction
This worksheet helps you explore the difficult parts of your goal and what you do and don’t have control over. It pushes you to see that no one is coming and encourages tiny next action steps to get you moving again.
