How to help your kids find their "why"

Happy Friday!

Today we’re talking about Lyndon, an Apollo student who learned to find his “why” through exercises that helped to define his core values, goal setting, and more.

Plus, we’re sharing the secret of how to use AI as a personal tutor, and advice on how to raise successful kids.

Let’s dive in!

In case you’re new here, Prequel is the free, twice-weekly newsletter for parents who want their kids to succeed. We give you weekly insights on how your children can get ahead ― in school and in life.

💡 How Lyndon found his why at age 12

For this week’s newsletter, I wanted to share the story of Lyndon with you. He’s one of our students in our Apollo program. Here’s what one of our program directors, Zain, had to say about him:

“When Lyndon joined Apollo, he was curious to learn more about the world. Apollo exposed him to how technologies like artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, VR/AR, and blockchain are impacting the future of health, money, food, transport, and energy,” says Zain.

Kids at Lyndon’s age are naturally curious, but they aren’t always given the chance to explore their curiosities in school or get exposure to the world around them. Thankfully, Lyndon found Apollo, and was given the opportunity to become his best!

One of Lyndon’s favorite workshops at Apollo is the Finding Your Why workshop.

As Lyndon says, “Finding your why is to find your values, and just reflect about your life… We had to find our values, our purpose, and our mission.”

Kids are never too young to start considering their purpose and passions in the world. In fact, we should be encouraging them to do this as early as possible! Being able to identify their purpose in life at a young age will serve them well as they get older and start making bigger and more important decisions.

Here are four ways to help kids find their why at any age:

1. Understand how to identify your own core values

The first step to helping kids find their why is having them name their core values — these are the values that matter most to them when it comes to making future life decisions.

These could be:

• Knowledge

• Adventure

• Talent

• Connection

• Freedom

The possibilities are limitless.

A great place to get started is by having your kids do a values card sort. This tool will present your kids with a variety of different values and invite them to sort those cards into “very important”, “important”, and “not important” categories. Doing this can lead to so many valuable insights!

2. Define your vision & mission for your life

The next step is to set your vision and mission for your life.

Your kid’s vision answers the question: What does your happy/joyful/successful life look life?

To get there, invite your kids to imagine their future 10-20 years from now and describe it in as much detail as they can.

Your kid’s mission answers the question: How will you achieve your vision?

To get there, ask your kids: what do they want to do with their time in order to fulfill their vision?

Once your kid has come up with their mission and vision, have them try building a vision board that encompasses them. This can be a very powerful exercise and, when displayed, can serve as a constant reminder to your kid of their goals.

3. Understand how definitions of success vary for every person.

Everyone has a different image of what “success” looks like for them — so help your kid find their own definition of success.

One of our favorite exercises for this is “Six Lives”. We outline exactly how to do it at home in this video, but the idea is that your kid will read through each of the six life descriptions and rank them according to how successful they think each of those people are.

This can help kids recognize that there’s more than just one definition of success. It may even help them realize that their own version of success was something they hadn’t considered before!

4. Goal-Setting

Finally, once your kid has found their “why”, they need to learn the skills to actually achieve it.

At Apollo, we love teaching kids how to set SMART goals:

As the author Greg Reid said, “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.”

Try having your kids set one SMART goal that they want to achieve by the end of the month.

⚡️ Ivy’s Top Links:

1. How AI and ChatGPT will change learning forever
   (Find out more in our AI Masterclass!)

2. AI can help your kids write, but it won’t help them think like a writer

3. How to raise successful kids, from parents of two 14-year-old high school graduates

4. When it comes to life decisions, you can be an investor or a borrower… which one are you?

🚀 Community Highlights

🎓 BETA Camp alumni Kyne just got news that he was accepted to Mount Sinai medical school after only his second year at the Wharton School.

☀️ Our BETA Camp July cohort is in full-swing, and we can’t wait to share what our students build this summer. (Want to get on the waitlist for the fall? Click here.)

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Ivy
CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo
Follow my journey on LinkedIn