Establish small goals that can be achieved in a short amount of time. Daily goals can include getting chores done, acing a test or finishing an assignment. Set a timeline for when the goal should be achieved to give the goal a sense of urgency.
Identify the obstacles that can prevent the goal from being accomplished. Some of these obstacles are external, such as test questions being tough to understand or a book having a lot of pages that need reading. Others are internal, such as laziness, fatigue or illness.
Plan how the teen can overcome those obstacles. A tutor can help overcome a class difficulty, for example, while a job can assist in getting money to buy a car. Proper scheduling can combat procrastination or tiredness.
Write down the goal, the obstacles and the plan for goal achievement and look at it daily to see what progress is being made or what mistakes have occurred.
Watch the teen execute those plans to overcome obstacles and achieve those immediate goals.
Set larger goals with greater consequences such as a potential college choice or a career path. Use the same methods of identifying obstacles and executing the solutions to them so those larger goals can also be achieved.