Inspiring Youth Today
Young people are our future.
From an inter-generational relationships author and speaker, I strongly believe that there are many techniques of speakers that you can use to engage and inspire youth. After all, in only a few short years time, young people will be running the world – your world, the world you rule now.
It’s important to engage and inspire the young generations...for everyone’s benefit – and you have the power to do this.
My latest book ‘Shush, You!’ features a range of 5 minute tips to help any adult build a better relationship with a teen in their life and I’ve customized a couple to share with you here on the subject of how you can draw on your own experiences to inspire yourself to inspire our amazing future generations...
Offer an alternative...Just like parents offer an alternative to their kids to drink milk instead of Coke, you can offer us an alternative – whether it’s hanging out with different friends who will inspire them to be better, or show them what they can do on a Saturday night (i.e. instead of going out drinking, to stay home and research something online that will bring them closer to their goal or dream).
Share a story from your past...when you pick the right time, young people are keen to listen to what you have to say about experiences as a young person, because even if it’s for a few minutes, we as young people feel we’re equal to you in regard to your failures, mistakes, successes and inspiring stories, because you’re being open and genuine and show that you have already been where we are at now. It can be something really little – a story of how you started out your first business venture, or how you chose your friends...little by little, this all adds up.
Give us an opportunity...yes, we know that as adults you’re smarter, bigger and more experienced than us. But if we don’t learn from you, and if you don’t have trust in us to do something for you, or for you to share something with us, we will never be able to learn from you. If you know a young person interested in getting a job, why not help them by giving your insight about how you went about of getting your first job – what are the right and wrong things to do at a job interview?
Who do you look up to? We know that we look up to our parents (even if we don’t like to admit it), or at the very least someone very close to us. But who else can we look up to in the world? Stop being so secretive and tell us who your biggest role models are. Who do you look up to? Why? Who would you like to be the most? Then turn the tables and ask us – young people, who our role models are and why we idolize them. A discussion can go a long way and may even bring on an epiphany! How cool would that be!
How do you achieve your goals? Do you have a certain process for when you have an idea to execute – in your personal life, business, health? Do you go out and do a whole lot of research? What can you teach us so we can fast-track our execution of goals?
Become a coach or mentor. As a role model in a young person’s life, you can help them step back and take a look at their whole life as a whole and identify key areas they can work on to achieve their goals. An easy three step process is to:
1. Establish the key points they want to work on/achieve – take time to discuss this and identify the young person’s perspective from the facts or action points that need to go into an action plan.
2. Ask the young people about the hopes and goals they have on the execution side of things – is this something they want to achieve during their life, or by the end of the year, or by the end of next week.
3. Remembering that we only have control over ourselves, look at what specific behaviour and execution advice you can give for the young person to think about how they will achieve their goals. How can the young person engage the people and resources available around them to shift from their present state to their ‘desired state’ i.e. when the goal/s have become reality.
Eric Hoffer once said: “In times of radical change, the learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists”. The way you inspire young people will carry on with them way into whatever type of world we will be living in, in a couple of decades time so never think that your words will go to waste.
Support, inspiration and encouragement are the greatest asset you have, so share these with the young people around you, and if they listen closely enough, you hold the power to help us shape the world into a better place.
And most importantly, Trust Your Future.
Eva-Maria is a 20 year old family coach, international speaker, TV personality and author of the bestselling book ‘You Shut Up!’. Russian-born, Eva-Maria currently lives in New Zealand, working with various groups, corporate, and families, and is on a full-on mission to help improve 1,000,000 adult-teenager relationships around the world!