The A-level results have now come and gone and whilst many young people will now be sorted and off on their way, some may well now not be very sure what to do with themselves.
AlterEgo specialises in helping young people find direction and the motivation with which to go off and pursue their path in life. Not knowing what you want to do is extremely stressful and can create conflict at home - with parents wanting their children to flee the nest and children likewise wanting to get out of their parents control.
If you know of any young people feeling a little lost and unsure of what to do next, then we'd be more than happy to talk to them. Just call 0845 050 7922 or email us here.
Suzannah Wallace
AlterEgo
www.alteregocoaching.co.uk
Inspire. Motivate. M-Power.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
The Futures Of Young People
“Motivation and Goal-Setting” is one of the most popular workshops AlterEgo delivers, and in fact, how AlterEgo began – at the start, this was all we offered. Our mission has always been to motivate young people to raise their aspirations and we have now expanded our offerings and do this with a number of different workshops and courses.
During the motivation workshop I talk to young people about their futures and ask them to tell me what they want from their lives. Inevitably, they often get stuck at this point and start to huff and puff and say they have no idea what they want to do. Being asked what you want to do when you’re older is a question young people get asked all the time and one that will often illicit a raising of eyes to the ceiling and an avoidance of the question. However, it’s not really what they want to do when they’re older that interests me, although it’s fantastic when any of them do know exactly what it is they want to do. It’s what they want their life to look, sound and feel like that I want to know about.
So what do I mean by that? Well, if someone tells me that they have no idea about their futures, I ask them if they can tell me a little about where they might want to live, what kind of house they’d like, what kind of lifestyle they’d like to have, how they’d like to feel, whether they’d like to go on holidays, listen to music, hear the sea…anything that they’d like in their future. If that still flummoxes them, then we start with what they don’t want. Do they want to live in a cardboard box? I tell them that there’s nothing wrong with that as long as they don’t mind the cold or not being able to lock their door at night (it’s important that you give them that choice though and not write it off for them. This is about them taking responsibility for their decisions and in fact, being responsible enough to make these decisions themselves.). Obviously I’m yet to meet a young person who aspires to live in a cardboard box, so whilst they might not know what they do want yet, they now have a starting point – they know they don’t want to live in a cardboard box. So from there, it’s possible to build up a picture of things that they might want or not want. Do they want to be able to afford to eat? Do they want to have a car? Do they want to move from the area that they have been living all their lives? Do they want to go abroad? Do they want to go to music festivals or be able to afford to watch Sky? What don’t they want? Can they say instead what they do want?
Building a picture of our futures is a very important process for anyone, whatever age. If we do not know what we want our futures to look like, how do we know what we’re aiming for? For many young people, this will be the first time that they have thought about it other than to know that they don’t know what they want to do. And that’s fine. The key is to realise that if we don’t want to live in a cardboard box, and that if we do want to live in a house with a car, then we’re going to have to get a job and get some money. If they want to make that process easier for themselves, they may well need to get some qualifications.
For most teens, this is often the first time the penny has dropped. Up until now, the focus has been so much on school, exams and what everyone else has been telling them to do, that they have not really had a chance to think about what they want and how they are going to get it. Realising that GCSE’s are going to make things easier, regardless of what it is that they might want to achieve, helps young people to re-engage with their education and to start to think about their future in a new way.
So many people go into jobs that they would never have thought about as a teen because they either didn’t know the job existed or because that was what was on offer when they were job hunting. There are very few people who know exactly what it is they want to do aged 14. The important thing, however, is to want to do something rather than nothing and to prepare young people for that journey ahead. These life skills are every bit as important as any other qualification.
If you'd like to know more about our motivation workshops, please visit the website here or call 0843 050 7922.
Suzannah Wallace
AlterEgo
www.alteregocoaching.co.uk
Inspire. Motivate. Empower.
During the motivation workshop I talk to young people about their futures and ask them to tell me what they want from their lives. Inevitably, they often get stuck at this point and start to huff and puff and say they have no idea what they want to do. Being asked what you want to do when you’re older is a question young people get asked all the time and one that will often illicit a raising of eyes to the ceiling and an avoidance of the question. However, it’s not really what they want to do when they’re older that interests me, although it’s fantastic when any of them do know exactly what it is they want to do. It’s what they want their life to look, sound and feel like that I want to know about.
So what do I mean by that? Well, if someone tells me that they have no idea about their futures, I ask them if they can tell me a little about where they might want to live, what kind of house they’d like, what kind of lifestyle they’d like to have, how they’d like to feel, whether they’d like to go on holidays, listen to music, hear the sea…anything that they’d like in their future. If that still flummoxes them, then we start with what they don’t want. Do they want to live in a cardboard box? I tell them that there’s nothing wrong with that as long as they don’t mind the cold or not being able to lock their door at night (it’s important that you give them that choice though and not write it off for them. This is about them taking responsibility for their decisions and in fact, being responsible enough to make these decisions themselves.). Obviously I’m yet to meet a young person who aspires to live in a cardboard box, so whilst they might not know what they do want yet, they now have a starting point – they know they don’t want to live in a cardboard box. So from there, it’s possible to build up a picture of things that they might want or not want. Do they want to be able to afford to eat? Do they want to have a car? Do they want to move from the area that they have been living all their lives? Do they want to go abroad? Do they want to go to music festivals or be able to afford to watch Sky? What don’t they want? Can they say instead what they do want?
Building a picture of our futures is a very important process for anyone, whatever age. If we do not know what we want our futures to look like, how do we know what we’re aiming for? For many young people, this will be the first time that they have thought about it other than to know that they don’t know what they want to do. And that’s fine. The key is to realise that if we don’t want to live in a cardboard box, and that if we do want to live in a house with a car, then we’re going to have to get a job and get some money. If they want to make that process easier for themselves, they may well need to get some qualifications.
For most teens, this is often the first time the penny has dropped. Up until now, the focus has been so much on school, exams and what everyone else has been telling them to do, that they have not really had a chance to think about what they want and how they are going to get it. Realising that GCSE’s are going to make things easier, regardless of what it is that they might want to achieve, helps young people to re-engage with their education and to start to think about their future in a new way.
So many people go into jobs that they would never have thought about as a teen because they either didn’t know the job existed or because that was what was on offer when they were job hunting. There are very few people who know exactly what it is they want to do aged 14. The important thing, however, is to want to do something rather than nothing and to prepare young people for that journey ahead. These life skills are every bit as important as any other qualification.
If you'd like to know more about our motivation workshops, please visit the website here or call 0843 050 7922.
Suzannah Wallace
AlterEgo
www.alteregocoaching.co.uk
Inspire. Motivate. Empower.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
