Every parent wants to see their children happy and successful. To make this happen, children need to be accomplished with appropriate skills that are essential. The teenage years are extremely important in a child’s life because this is when they can learn a lot of skills that can work in the long run. So, you can take a look further and discover some of the skills teens need in their life and also know how to encourage them to adopt these skills.
Skills Teens Need In Their Life And How To Encourage Them?
As per the Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, it is less about the grades and extracurricular activities and more about the skills that help people walk the inevitable challenges of life.(1) These skills are essential in everyone’s life, and teenage is the best age when they can learn these skills quite effectively. Below, we have listed down some of the basic skills teens need in their life and ways to encourage them.
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Planning:
One of the most essential skills that every teen should learn is planning. When children are small, parents can do the planning related to them. However, as they grow into their teens, they should learn the various means of doing and executive proper planning by themselves. This helps them to become able enough for making and also carrying out concrete goals and plans for a successful life.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Make sure that even the small and simple things, like completion of their homework, their study time, etc. are planned well. So, help them learn how to plan them from the ground level.
Let them prepare a timetable for their daily routine. Help them out in this.
If they have a project to complete, sit with them and talk about how they could get that done within the limited submission deadline. Also, allow them to come up with their planning ideas.
Include your teens in planning family activities, like vacations, house renovations, or other things. This way they get encouragement.
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Goal-Setting:
Setting goals is another skill that teens should learn. This goal setting would be always beneficial in their personal as well as professional life. Talk to your teen about how to set a goal and ways to take action towards reaching their goals.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Work on the goal-setting skill quite often. Help them identify their primary goal at first. They will gain confidence in their ability for achieving bigger goals in the future.(2) Make them know how to track their progress towards achieving their goals so that they stay motivated.
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Focus:
Another important skill teens need in their life is “focus”. This is the ability to concentrate on the specific things that are important at a particular time. Focus is a major problem associated with a majority of people of all ages. So, every teen should pay attention towards attaining this skill in their life.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Talk to your teenager about how to improve focus by limiting social media or screen time.
Encourage spending most of your time with them.
Encourage them to involve in hands-on activities like baking, cooking, drawing, gardening, or baking, which do not involve screens.
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Self-Control:
Self-control is about controlling how one response to emotion and various stressful situations. This is another skill that teens should learn to achieve success in their personal and professional life in the future. Once they learn how to control their emotion, including anger, frustrations, and even excitement, they can face the world like a gem!
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
To encourage them to adopt this skill, you must talk about feelings, and strategies to manage strong feelings, such as stepping away from an unfavorable environment/situation, taking a deep breath, or screaming into a pillow.(3)
Talk about the ways their behavior can affect others and also let them know why it is essential to be mindful of the same.
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Decision-Making Skills:
In today’s world, even many adults struggle in making the correct decisions regarding their personal or professional life. That is the reason, why teens should be encouraged to learn decision-making skills so that they can become more successful as they grow up.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
This skill can be achieved when teens are encouraged to take their small decisions, for example, choosing their project topic, joining any program, or other similar things. Teens can also be taught business decision-making skills by making them learn about their analytical thinking, problem-solving attitude, inductive reasoning, and also research abilities that can help them grow their decision-making skills.
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Awareness:
“Be aware of your presence and your surrounding, no matter where you are!” Awareness is another skill that teens should adopt in their life. It is not just noticing the situation or people around us, but also understanding the ways we fit in well. We should help our teens be more aware.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Talk to your teens about present moments, current events, or stories running in the world or your surrounding. Let them be aware of the present moment.
Visit different places with them, especially the greens or gardens where they get plenty of opportunities to observe and be aware of various things that might otherwise be missed by them.
Show your teenager that they can make a difference in society. Help them know about different problems of society and make them aware of how they can bring the change.
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Flexibility
There are times when life gets hard, and teens should be able to adjust accordingly. Flexibility is the ability to adjust to any changing situation at any particular time. When our teens are flexible, they can adjust to all situations.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Do not be excessively rigid about the schedules of your teen. However, make sure which things they missed out on and help them cope with the same.
Encourage spontaneity.
Be a role model for them. Do not get upset if the plans that you made get changed. Make new plans. This way, your teens would learn to be flexible about changes
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Problem-Solving Skills:
One of the most important skills that teens need in their life is a problem-solving skill. This is essential for every individual. To become an effective problem-solver, it is essential to have great critical thinking. So, help your teen develop this.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
This skill can be developed in teens by questioning them in different ways that show them how to evaluate a particular situation and make appropriate judgments.
If they are stuck, you can prompt them with ideas. This way they feel encouraged.
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Communication Skills:
Communication is one of the greatest things that can help us stay connected with the world. Your teenager needs to develop this skill because it is essential for them in their persona as well as professional life.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
Talk more about this critical skill to your teen.
Make them know that as there are different people, they speak different languages. However, mastering communication skills would help them understand the temperament before knowing how and what to communicate with them.
Let them know about different forms of communication, including talking, writing, and a few other forms.
Make them clear about different modes of communication, like telephone, letters, and emails.
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Financial Skills:
Another important skill that teens should develop in them is financial skills. They should know how to handle money. You teens should know how to manage their budget or how to balance a checkbook even.
How To Encourage Them To Adopt This Skill?
You can teach these basic money management skills easily at home by allowing them to have their pocket money and making them know how to save the money for bigger things.
Teaching financial skills early in their life will help your teen develop their overall quality of life and also make them financially strong.
Conclusion:
These above-mentioned skills should be developed in teens as these would help them get sky-high success in their personal and professional life as they grow up. So, encourage them to adopt these skills and make them prepared for their future.
