Help your teens find their purpose in life

August 5, 11:14 AMNY Parenting Teens ExaminerJennifer Wagner

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   Book Cover of Path to Purpose

The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life by William Damon, is a book that should be read by all parents and teachers of teenagers. Based on a four year study of youth, Damon has determined that parents and educators need to help instill a sense of purpose in today's teens. This book offers great advice on how to do just that.

Our youth has been so primed to do well in school that they study, go to great colleges and then don't know what they want out of life. Many wind up apathetic, disengaged or cynical.

Damon describes four types of youth: the disengaged, the dreamers, the dabblers and the purposeful. The purposeful, those that have found something useful to dedicate themselves to, only made up 20% of the young people interviewed for the study. At the other extreme, the disengaged made up 25%.

There is a chapter in the book, Parenting on Purpose, in which Damon gives nine excellent pieces of advice for parents and offers full explanations on using them. Here is a preview of a few of them (sans the explanations):

1. Listen closely for the spark, then fan the flames.
2. Take advantage of regular opportunities to open a dialogue.
3. Be open-minded and supportive of the sparks of interest expressed.

William Damon is Professor and Director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University and editor of the definitive Handbook of Child Psychology. His previous book, Greater Expectations: Overcoming the Culture of Indulgence in Our Homes and Schools won a Parent's Choice award.

For more info: 
William Damon website
Wounded by school: Are outdated school policies hurting our children
Book that inspires and motivates teens to be happy