Teaching Kids The Art of Decision Making

The following is a guest post by Kat from Inspired to Action.

In this day and age, even buying milk is complex. 1%, 2%, Whole, Chocolate, Fat-Free, Organic, Soy. We could spend 15 minutes staring at the dairy case trying make the wisest choice.

Thanks to the technology we have access to almost every answer and product we desire. We are presented with thousands of options every day. Good options. Helpful options. Fun options. But everything we say yes to dilutes our overall effectiveness.

It is essential to our children’s success that we teach them the art of decision making.

1. Teach your children the power of purpose.

To be decisive we have to know what we want.

Do you have a personal or family mission statement? They’re not just for Fortune 500 companies.

The process of determining what is truly important to us can be incredibly enlightening. Often, we allow ourselves to get caught up in societal expectations or circumstances and make our worst decisions as a result. Identifying our priorities is a key to making excellent decisions.

By creating mission statements, we have a steadfast vision of how we want to live our lives. A vision that isn’t affected by our emotions or environment. We can then use this mission statement as a basis for all of our decision making. It will help us sift the good choices from the best choices.

As our children get older we need to help them determine their priorities and purpose. The best way is to model it for them. When they see us living with purpose, they’ll be inspired to do so as well.

2. Regularly talk through your decisions.

As you make decisions, talk with your children about them. Explain your thought process, priorities, and motives. Tell them about decisions you’ve made in the past. Good ones, bad ones and hard ones.

The beauty of sharing our history is that our children can learn the easy way what we learned the hard way.

3. Let them make bad decisions.

The stakes are low during childhood. It is the time for our kids to practice their decision making skills. We can teach them the principles of good decision making but they need to practice those principles.

Give them the freedom to make their own decisions, even bad ones. Yes, they might fall and get scraped, but if we never let go of the bicycle seat, our kids will never learn to ride. What they learn from their own mistakes will teach them more than years of lecturing.

4. Live simply

Simplicity breeds decisiveness and decisiveness breeds simplicity.

Four years ago my life was complex. I was a stay at home mom to my two little girls. I owned a web design business. I wrote on my personal blog. I played soccer and ran in races. I was involved in leadership at my church. I wrote another blog geared towards the music industry.

And I was mildly mediocre at all of it, but great at procrastination. I had so many things to do I never knew where to start.

Now? I’m a mom and a blogger. That’s it. To make my life even more simple, my blog is all about motherhood. So, working on my blog and working on being a better mother go hand in hand.

Making decisions about how to spend my time is simple now that I’m not juggling 6 different roles. Any responsibilities I take on need to help me be a better mom. Period.

Simplicity and decisiveness go hand in hand. As we help our children live simply, we teach them the art of decision making.

By teaching our children how to make excellent decisions they will be able to navigate their path to success with confidence and ease. What better gift can we give them?

Kat writes at Inspired to Action where she shares practical thoughts to help moms develop the habits and skills they need to effectively manage their homes and raise children capable of changing the world.