Every human being on earth has a purpose for being here. Unfortunately, many fail to discover and accomplish their purposes mainly because they were not properly guided towards this light. It is the responsibilities of parents and teachers to help guide teenagers aright towards identifying what their purposes are and accomplishing such. But before parents and teachers can do that, they too must first understand what the task entails. In other words, how can they really help teenagers find their purposes? Let the tips in the subsequent paragraphs serve as guide. You may also want to look out for more parents’ and teachers’ resources that will help you.
Do not start by instilling fear in them about how tough life is and why they must find their purposes. I know many parents and teachers feel this is the right way to inspire children and prompt them to aspire for greatness. Sometimes it does work, but other times it does not. Moreover, in this instance of helping them discover their purposes in life, there really is no need scaring them about how difficult life is. Instead, the focus should be on helping them find and nurture their purposes in life until they can make the most of it. That said, I will like to reiterate that using the fear and survival thinking method may become counter-productive.
There is the need to align teenagers’ education and life purpose alongside their passion/interests. Right from early on in life, children tend to display hints of what they are here on earth to accomplish. This can easily be deduced in by watching what they are always interested in doing; things they are passionate about. Kids who are extremely bookish in nature could be more inclined to the academia whereas those who put up stands in front of their houses and sell groundnut more become future entrepreneurs. And even though little girls are generally obsessed with fashion, some of them who are extremely very much particular about the clothes they wore for instance might just be indicating to you that they are the future fashion designers that will reshape the fashion industry. It is therefore important for parents and teachers to discover these patterns early and align them properly towards helping teens discover their life purposes.
We cannot dispute the importance of sound and relevant education. This is because talent isn’t just enough. Agreed, a certain teen’s purpose in life may be to become the next Genevieve Nnaji which is great. But if she doesn’t acquire at least basic literacy and numeracy skills, she may find it hard to accomplish this task. But then imagine that a teenager’s purpose in life is to become a great actor and that he or she has been assisted to discover this purpose which is the aligned with relevant education say Theatre Arts, he or she will be better prepared towards actualizing this purpose.
There are many more things parents and teachers must do to encourage teens to realize and actualize their purposes in life asides providing them with the necessary tools they need. Some of these include-
- Believing in them
- Encouraging them
- Challenging them to be better
- Telling them the hard truth
- Being the perfect role model
- Giving good advice
