Stop Wishing Your Teen Was Motivated for Career Stuff and Do This Instead

Why Teens Lack Motivation for Career Stuff: Part 2

If you're like most caring parents, you've probably spent a lot of time wondering how to motivate your teen about their future career.

You encourage them, remind them, push them, cheer them on, and still nothing changes.

Their energy stays low, their interest seems half-hearted, and their future feels like something they will deal with later.

Stop Focusing on Motivation
If you're one of the countless parents frustrated by your teen's lack of motivation for figuring out their career path, stop focusing on motivation and do this instead...

Focus on helping them identify a Job of Interest.

I define a Job of Interest in a very intentional way that I don't want you to miss. Simply put, it's...

a specific position identified through autonomous choice.

Autonomous choice means it's an option they've identified based on their own internal motivation rather than outside pressure or expectation.

Autonomous choice means ownership.

Why Ownership is Critical
Ownership is critical in this context because your teen won't be motivated for a future they don't own.

If you've been focusing on motivation and neglecting ownership, you have it backwards.

Your teen will never feel motivated by something that seems assigned, prescribed, or pushed on them.

They'll connect most deeply with what they choose and what feels like their own.

This doesn't mean you have to reluctantly accept your teen's Job of Interest if you have legitimate concerns. But wise parents leverage the ownership dynamic to encourage strategic research of the job so their teens gain a comprehensive understanding of the role and avoid making an uninformed choice.

We'll dive more into the research and what to do with your concerns in upcoming emails, but let's get back to ownership for now.

Bonus Outcomes of Ownership
Besides motivation, ownership creates a few additional qualities that are required for your teen to prepare for and enter an ideal career.

Initiative: Your teen will have an intrinsic drive to do what's necessary without the need for rewards or consequences.

Effort: Your teen will exert their full energy and work diligently.

Resilience: Your teen will endure challenges and difficulties and push through to completion.

All of these qualities are necessary for your teen to become successful, and they are all byproducts of ownership.

It might be difficult to envision motivation, initiative, effort, and resilience consistently manifesting in your teen when it comes to future career plans, but that's what happens when they own their future.

Ownership is powerful, and it's a much better focal point than motivation. Are you willing to shift your focus?

Why Teens Lack Motivation for Career Stuff

Part 1: The Likely Culprit Behind Your Teen’s Lack of Motivation for Career Stuff

Part 2: Stop Wishing Your Teen Was Motivated for Career Stuff and Do This Instead (currently reading)

Part 3: How Your Teen Can Identify a Job of Interest

START A CONVO
Initiate a conversation with your child about this subject using the following prompts:

Do you think most young people feel pressured toward a particular job or career? Explain.
Do you think they are hesitant to share their career ideas with adults in their lives? Explain.
Do you find it difficult to identify a job of interest? Explain.

RELATED RESOURCES

The MapInMe Journey is a unique one-to-one customized coaching experience for teens and twenty-somethings that identifies a True Job Match so they can move forward with clarity and confidence and avoid wasting time, money, and effort.

About the Author

Jay DuSold

Jay has spent over three decades working with young people and parents as a mentor and life coach. He started focusing exclusively on career guidance in 2014 after helping his son figure out career direction while he was a junior in high school.

As a youth career guide, he helps teens and twenty-somethings around the world identify a job fit to gain clarity and confidence about career direction so they’ll reach their full potential and avoid the waste of getting it wrong.

As an author and speaker, he equips young people to think differently about their identity, true success, and figuring out where they can be awesome in the world of work. He also empowers youth advocates and organizations to more effectively support the young people they serve through their career guidance initiatives.