4 | December 2017 #juniorgolfmag Visit us at juniorgolfmag.net Here’s something for parents – and younger people, too – to ponder. Are you feeling overwhelmed and under productive each day? “Over- whelmed” has become a way of life, yet it’s not the basis of a successful life, especially for our children. So how are you spending your weekly 168 hours? Consider calendaring S.M.A.R.T. to equip your junior golfer with the healthy habit of living purposefully. STARTWITH A POSITIVE DAILYATTITUDE This is not an item to schedule on your calendar, but indeed it needs to be shared and modeled with your junior golfer. A healthy dose of encouragement goes a long way to ignite a successful day. That goes for parents and kids alike. MAINTAIN MOSTMEALSTOGETHER Studies show that 59% of families have less meals together than when the parents were kids. Eating at least one meal together each day has positive side effects. Families save money, are less stressed, raise healthier kids, embrace por- tion control, explore new foods and experience greater con- tentment. This results in higher grades, healthier choices, better relationships and lower golf scores! ADOPTADJUSTABLE ACTIVITIES Consider your total family calendared activities and give yourself permission to not attend them all. This includes anything from special church activities and volunteer work, to multiple sporting events and social functions. Keep your important commitments, but if you overbook your week with non-essential activities, you will burn out fast and the family will suffer. RESTWELLMOSTDAYS Create healthy repeated sleep patterns, even on weekends. According to the National Sleep Foundation, school age children (6-13) require 9-11 hours, while teenagers (14-17) do well on 8-10 hours of sleep. Parents do best with at least 7 hours. TREATEVERYONE'STIME EQUALLY We all must sleep, eat, work and attend school, etc. Yet family time, recreation and downtime is important, too. As parents of junior golfers, be sure you pay attention to your non-golfing children and spouse, as well. Everyone needs to be seen, heard and feel cared for in equal amounts. So if you’re the golfing star in the family, remember that it’s not only about you. NOW HERE’S A BONUSTIP. Minimize Crisis Days! Choose one day each week to look over that week’s sched- ule. By color-coding your activities, you can predict cri- sis days. These stressful days usually occur after you’ve spent too many nights out during the week. It’s helpful to color code your calendar, in order to detect areas that you can reduce, eliminate or increase for more productive family and relax- ation time. For instance: RED: IMPORTANT— The non-negotiable items must be scheduled first. These are activities you must prepare for or attend every day, week or month, including sleeping and eating. GREEN: URGENT— Write in what was unplanned. For things that occur without notice, your response to these can be to reduce or eliminate them. BLUE: BRAIN-DEADTIME — These are downtime activities that you put no energy into. There’s nothing wrong with these items, as long as they don’t occupy your more productive times of the day. Use high energy minutes to get your best work completed. Okay, we’ll see you on #1 tee with a balanced calendar! And if you’d like, download a free 168-Hour Calendar with a color-coded tally sheet at ParentingJuniorGolfers.com. Sam and Linda Goldfarb specialize in improving family dynamics via personality-based learning. They are the founders of ParentingJuniorGolfers.com and ParentingAwesomeKids.com, based out of San Antonio, Texas. Calendar S.M.A.R.T. for Junior Golfing Success BY SAM AND LINDA GOLDFARB THE MENTAL GAME S M A R T