How To Motivate The Unmotivated Child – 8 Secret Ways

Want to know how to motivate the unmotivated child? Here are 8 genius ways to motivate your kids to take action.

Let’s chat about how to motivate the unmotivated child. 

As you have no doubt discovered as a parent, some children are naturally highly self-motivated.

They possess a continuous drive to give their best 100% of the time.

Other children are less enthusiastic – not that there is anything wrong with that.

Some children simply require additional assistance in learning to do their best, particularly at school.

But here’s the thing: Life is more challenging if approached with minimal effort.

If a child learns to do her best with the tools and resources they have, they will inevitably go on to have a more fulfilling life.

Here’s what you can do to teach your child to give his or her best effort:

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

1 – Set a good example.

Quick question: do you always practice what you preach?

Do you want your child to do her best?

Then do your best.

When your child sees you making an effort to do your best, she’ll be inspired to do her best, too.

It’s seriously challenging to motivate your child to do something you’re not willing to do yourself.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

2 – Give praise for effort.

Only acknowledging results will sometimes be insufficient, especially when a child is learning a new task.

Ensure that your child knows you appreciate their hard work.

Teach your child that effort is as important as the final results and that you are noticing that effort they are making.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

3 – Avoid criticizing or yelling.

There’s a more effective way than simply criticizing or yelling at your child.

If you’re displeased with your child’s behavior or effort, try this process instead:

• Explain why your child’s behavior is unacceptable.

• Communicate what you expect in the future and why your alternative may be better and make their life easier.

• Inform your child of the consequences if they repeat the behavior.

• Follow through with all the rules you set. Make sure you are only setting rules that are truly important to you.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

4 – Ask questions.

People usually like to talk about the things that they think is important.

As such consider asking questions about your child’s school work, friends, sports, or art work because that way you’re demonstrating that those things are important to you.

When you make it obvious that these things are important to you then you increase the chance that your child will take them more seriously.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

5 – Explain the benefits and the consequences.

For example, you can explain to your child that if they perform well in school, they’ll have more educational choices after high school and a greater selection of careers.

This is true!

Failing to do well in school can potentially result in a lifetime of low pay and unenjoyable jobs.

What do they want to achieve in the future?

Will having a good education and good results help them get to their goal quicker?

Explain to them the power of a good education.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

6 – Your child needs to have a little power over her life.

Allow your younger child to choose what she’ll wear for the day or what she will have for breakfast.

When your kids are older, allow your teenager to choose the dinner menu or even help prepare it.

Generally speaking, it is super important to give your children options in life – fair options – but allow them to make the final decision.

Having control over their environment can help boost their self-esteem and make them feel as if they have some freedom in life.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

7 – Set your child up for success.

You can also set your child up for success by teaching them the power of goal-setting.

Set mini goals with your child and ensure that those goals are accomplished.

It seriously feels good to reach your goals and success catalyzes future success.

The goals can be easy, like reading for 20 minutes each night or eating one vegetable at dinner time.

Start small and take baby steps along the way.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

8 – Encourage persistence.

Persistence is honestly the critical component of success.

When we feel uncomfortable, it’s natural to want to escape from the situation.

But we need to learn to get uncomfortable with the discomfort of hard work and persistence.

Encourage your child to continue even if they’re struggling.

It can be as simple as spending another 10 minutes on homework after they want to quit.

HOW TO MOTIVATE THE UNMOTIVATED CHILD

In the end, motivating your children can sometimes feel challenging.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up on this encouragement.

It’s never easy to influence the way someone views a task or life in general.

But through example, through persistence, self-motivation is empowering to both kids and adults and will serve them well in the future.

Children are often motivated by extrinsic rewards, mainly praise and the opinions of their peers.

Praise is a valuable tool to motivate a child.

Ideally, a child will eventually learn to motivate themselves.

A child becomes more independent and successful as an adult when intrinsically motivated.

Later in life, praise is rare, and the need to perform for one’s peers is diminished.

This is why many successful high school students struggle later in life.

The extrinsic motivation is gone.

Teach your child to motivate themselves and you’ll give them a gift that will benefit them for the rest of their life.

Frances Vidakovic

I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.