Finding Farewells, New Beginnings, and Potential for Teens This Fall
Did you hear about the October Theory Challenge for teens on TikTok this fall?
The challenge is similar to setting New Year’s resolutions — it encouraged social media users to make big life changes and dive deep into self-reflection. The idea was for teens to reset goals and create new momentum before the year’s end.
While this trend creates an opportunity for teens to prepare for the coming year, it doesn’t encompass all that’s needed for goal setting and reflecting.
This fall, I challenge you not only to reset for 2025, but to give farewells, find new beginnings, and discover your potential.
Giving Farewells
Did you know there are less than 50 days to go until 2025?
As a family life coach, this fact helps shape my work as I meet with students.
I’ll ask students to share with me what their current biggest challenge or trial is — they can only name one.
Once we’ve identified it, I then present them with an envelope. It contains single dollar bills equating to the number of remaining days in the year. Each dollar is symbolic of a day that they can use to say farewell to their trial.
The dollars show how far away they are from starting with a clean slate in the new year. 2025 is a goodbye for them to the prior year — whether it was problematic, painful, daunting, or blissful, pleasant, and rewarding!
We reflect on their farewells and the feelings they are putting behind them while looking to the future with hope.
It also gives teens a way to face their fears by pushing through and building resilience.
However, these farewells need to be done with discretion. Poorly done reflections can lead to getting stuck in old emotions.
Child psychologist Dr. Amy Vigliottiis says that rumination that persistently dwelling on negative thoughts, emotions, or раst events can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and even ԁeрression. And looking to the future with a negative bias just adds to this.
Farewells that focus on negative feelings prevent us from being present in the current moment. It cuts off hope for the now and later.
Don’t get stuck in your goodbyes to the past. Say your farewell and look positively to new beginnings.
Finding New Beginnings
New beginnings are found in the simple habits and lifestyle choices we make. Consistent small actions are the fresh start we need to move forward in 2025.
According to neuroscientist Dr. Irena O’Brien, research proves how habits are needed to make a change in your life. Habits impact the way your brain functions.
Consistent habits create better connectivity in the brain which leads to better overall function. For instance, habits play a huge role in building and strengthening connections within certain brain networks, like self-reflection, focus, and memory.
The key to establishing good habits starts with self-awareness. Self-awareness empowers you to identify areas for improvement and look ahead at potential obstacles.
You can use your self-awareness to make conscious decisions concerning your next steps and what habits you need to establish.
Self-awareness allows you to identify any obstacles to your progress, and figure out a plan to overcome them, through reasoning, planning, motivation, and attention.
To make the habits needed to move forward, don’t focus just on the outcomes. Instead, focus on the steps you need to take to get there.
Recognize that your small steps will be a learning process — it will take time to get it right. See any missteps as a chance to mature and flourish.
Discovering Your Potential
As parents, we are key to helping our teens to discover their potential. We serve as mentors, guides, and supporters on our teens’ journey to success.
We cheer them on and inspire them to look inward to see their potential. Parents, I urge you to share your stories with your teens to do this. Your experiences have the power to motivate, connect, and drive action.
Parents, though, you don’t have to provide this encouragement alone. You can consider using life coaching to assist your teens.
Coaching provides teens with structured support and guidance toward reaching their aspirations.
Coaching can be a valuable resource for teens, navigating challenges and pursuing their goals. Unlike therapy, which often focuses on past experiences, coaching is forward-focused, aiming to support personal growth and development in the present and future.
It’s all about a new beginning and reaching one’s potential.
By investing in coaching for your teens, you empower them to overcome obstacles, explore new opportunities, and cultivate essential life skills.
