Keeping the younger members of the family motivated in their attempt to achieve health goals is just as difficult for them as it is for you. As the parent, it is your job to create the healthiest lifestyle possible for every member of your family. There are simple solutions that can make this easy.
Consider making a to do list that can be crossed off as each member of the family achieves a healthy goal. Younger children will enjoy receiving a sticker every time one of their goals has been completed. Your actions will help keep your children engaged in achieving healthy goals through your positive, continuous reinforcement.
2013 Healthy Goals
Motivational Steps
Keeping your children motivated can be achieved using the following steps. They include:
- Make a list that tracks your children’s daily and weekly goals
- Make sure the sheet that is used to track remains in a visible location, like on the refrigerator door
- Make the tracking sheet very child-friendly
- Give your child the opportunity to post or color a bright star on the tracking sheet after every completed goal
- Maintain an open dialogue about their goals and yours. The dialogue should include:
- Allowing every member of the family to share ideas for success
- Begin every morning with words of encouragement
- Work to remove any obstacle that provides temptation or distraction
- Work together to develop healthier diets and physical activity programs that are all shared by the family
- Make a list together of how every member can stay motivated
- Celebrate the success of goals from everyone (big or small) during your family time
- Remain excited, motivated and enthusiastic to maintain focus on achieving goals in the long haul
As the family’s team leader, it is up to you to realize that it will most likely take many stars before a family member will totally adopt a new healthy behavior. It is important to take a positive approach. This will help every member of the family solidly adopt their healthy habits so they can maintain them in the future. Every small change is an important step to a healthier lifestyle at any age.
Remember that it is your job to maintain a high level of patience while offering words of encouragement, loads of praise and many smiles. More than likely, not every goal will be realized. However, overall the lessons your children learn will help maintain their level of commitment now and for the remainder of their life.
Victory Lean is a writer at Di Cigs.com – an e cigarette showcase. Her hobby is writing informative posts about healthy life, green living and beauty tips.
