Generally, teens get ideas about who or what they want to become and they make plans. Whether these plans are realistic or not, this is very normal behavior as it will start to point to a direction that a teen is going to take towards his/her future. When a teen starts looking toward his/her future, school and grades start to be very important. Teens who avoid thinking about what is ahead of them tend not to care about their school work and what they should be learning.
If you have a teen that lacks a view of the future, you can help him/her by seeding some dreams through cool experiences that involve your teen’s interests. Ask people you know about their careers and tell your teen. For example, if your teen’s aunt is a chemist and gets to blow things up for a living, this is interesting. If your teen shows some interest in that, set up a conversation between the two – then hide all of the baking soda in the house.
Here is a fun trick that I like and use on my kids: asking "I wonder" questions. For instance, when your family goes to an airport, and you see a cool jet, ask your teen: "I wonder want someone has to do to be allowed to fly that thing."
If your teen would like an idea of what jobs and careers would interest him/her, he/she can take a career test at the Princeton Review. From there, he/she can look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook to see what different careers pay and what schooling is needed to be in that career. You can also send away for catalogs to different technical schools and colleges.
