Welcome back to the 7 Habits of Self-Confident Teens Series. Bear with me as I strive to make my postings more regular on the blog. lol It’s been super hectic lately, so that sums up my life lately.

Today we’ll be talking about Habit 2 of the self-confident teens series, begin with the end in mind. It sounds like a strange concept, but in reality it’s not, and is actually helpful when you look at it.

Begin with the End in Mind, put simply, is to have goals. To know where you are headed in life. 

In one of my favorite classics, Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Alice (the main protagonist in the story) comes to a fork in the road. She encounters the Cheschire cat, and asks “Would you tell me please which way I ought to walk from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I I don’t much care where -” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way to walk,” said the Cat.

As we learn from this, if you don’t know where you want to end up in life, it doesn’t matter what type of choices you make. Something we all know, as human beings, is that we have the innate desire to be happy – to feel connected to others, feel love, and have our basic needs fulfilled, but what are your needs? And what are you willing to do to reach those needs and wants?

As you read this, think about your life so far. What choices have you made that have shaped who you are today? What have you accomplished, and what are you proud of?

You may not feel like you’ve accomplished much, but you’re still young, you have your whole life ahead of you, so I have faith in you that you will accomplish much throughout your lifetime.

Let’s talk about your ambitions and desires. Some goals I have for the far future are going to college, getting a job, getting married, having children, etc. Some goals I have for the near future are to learn how to drive, graduate high school, get a part time job, get a boyfriend (OK, I’m joking about that one :-P ) 

What do you want to do in the future? You may have a small goal, like to save up for that cute dress, or new soccer ball, or maybe your goal is to be valedictorian of your class, which is not exactly an easy task.

Whatever it is you are aiming for, as long as you know what it is, you can then decide what choices will not help you and will help you get there.

So, to create your goals, make sure you are specific, list the steps you need to take, by when you want to complete it, and how it will help you improve your life. No goal is to big for you to achieve, as long as you work consistently and are persevere, you can do it!

What goals do you have? Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get updates!

[elisha]