Teenage risk-taking trends

Teenagers take risks.  This is a key part of learning and personal growth. Personal choices allow individuals to assert independence and explore limits.  Developmental psychologists believe that unless individuals explore risk-taking, there is no growth.

Although risk-taking is experimental, some adolescents will be motivated by poor self esteem and lack of confidence.  Impulsive behavoiur and recklessness are strategies used by some adolescents to gain peer approval. The main problem for young people is their seeming inability to evaluate the potential risks and consequences of everyday behaviour . 60% of adolescent deaths are caused by accidents – many of these are the result of risk-taking.

Thrill-seeking, the desire to impress one’s friends, feelings of invincibility and the search for new experiences are all motivating forces that drive teens to act without concern for consequences or without even being able to fully evaluate the potential risks. For example, if a teenager engages in risky behaviour and doesn’t suffer the expected consequences, they are likely to deduce that the behaviour is not risky at all and that adult evaluations cannot be trusted.

This is often the case with drug and alcohol use. Teenagers don’t see drinking, drug use and driving as potentially risky in the same way as adults. For them, the risk is in social rejection – not being seen as cool - if they don’t do what their friends are doing.  Sometimes one risky choice can lead to others. For example, drinking alcohol to intoxication will impair judgement and may result in unwanted sexual activity or violence that would otherwise have been avoided.

Live & learn

No matter what our age, we have opportunities to learn both in and outside of traditional school. We can also reflect back on childhood. Our early experiences influence the ways we live and learn later and also how we treat people.  Some of us learn more in the 'real-world 'than we did back in school.  Not everyone applies all the facts and details they studied.  Learning what is useful to retain from books differs from learning about emotions and developing relationships.

Think back to your childhood.  Maybe your parents desired for you to try many varied activities.   When children have things scheduled each day of the week, you may wonder whether a growing child's happiness is sacrificed to the egos of the parents.  As a child grows, the tables can turn.  A child grown may sacrifice pleasing parents in favor of appeasing his or her own ego.  Consider how much time you spend with your parents and how this relates to your childhood relationship. 

In one example, a grown son decided not to have children.  He said,

"Just think of how much money you can keep for yourself.  My dad says, 'we spend so much money on you three kids--just one of you costs about $250,000, just raising you...If you didn't have kids you could keep it all to yourself.  Just be rich.' "

Society going nowhere fast?

Young people in Western societies are told they will likely have at least 6 careers, yet school and university curricula are not keeping up with changes in the outside world.  As the result, students learn less about themselves, social skills and how to adapt in societies around them.  What would you think if educational institutions evolved to focus more on empowering young people to develop physical, emotional and moral well-being rather than emphasize competitive test results? What kinds of changes would you propose in order to help people reverse the epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness that is perpetuated by current addiction to economic growth? 

Accelerate or hinder your progress

Awareness of what you like or dislike about yourself is the first step to developing a clearer sense of who you are.  How you see yourself contributes to your attitude and whether you accelerate or hinder your own life learning.  As you grow to feel grateful for all your experiences,  you will also see open-ended benefits in the following:

• Concern yourself more with making others feel good about themselves than making them feel good about you 
• If you're unable to clarify your vision in ways that motivate yourself and others,  then  its time to revise it         
• Raise your awareness about issues you need to know, not necessarily about what you wish to hear

Success begins inside yourself

Many people talk about success.   Some people offer step-by-step models and invite you to follow their lead.  Other people offer courses, podcasts, CD-Roms and DVDs to give you insight into their personal triumphs. You can find books about people who have achieved their goals and call this success.  What does all this mean to you? Maybe it gets you excited about doing something new.  Maybe it makes you feel you're not yet where you wish to be. Maybe you don't have a plan to develop or distinguish yourself.

Its important to recognize that if you don't yet have a clear idea what success would mean to you, the only person who could change how you perceive and understand success is you.  For you, perhaps success relates less to the idea of finishing a task than to the process and what you learn about yourself as you prioritize the plans to get there.  As you convert the goal into steps, you would also benefit from listing obstacles that you think hold you back.   Consider mentors or other people who could potentially assist you to overcome these obstacles. You may also have your own revelations. 

Once you create a vision of what you seek, you need to find ways to motivate yourself to make it happen.  Psychology suggests that you are most likely to be motivated by a) feelings of yearning b) fear of loss and c) the desire to love and be loved.  As you clarify your notions of success, and begin to identify how you could measure results, focus on what you will gain and how this will enrich your life.

Superachiever Steven K. Scott has come to expect criticism, problems and failures.  Rather than become defensive, make excuses or rationalize failures, he accepts responsibility for results of his efforts, he retraces his steps to recognize what he could do differently, and he takes a new approach based on wisdom.  He reminds us that no worthwhile success in any endeavour is ever achieved without encountering adveristy.

"The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done." -Mother Teresa