What can we do to help teens go from struggling to spectacular? Teens today need stability in their homes, a secure, orderly and clean place to live and thrive both emotionally and physically.

Home is just one small piece of the puzzle here. Think about what your teens are doing when they’re at home. Much of the time they are at home is spent alone. They spend time on schoolwork, online, on the phone, or on the go moving from activity to activity in the solitary space of their headphones or iPods. When you factor in all of their alone time, youth spend as much time at school and with friends as they do with their families. How many of you can consciously say you know everything that happens to your teens at every moment of every day?

Think about the amount of time your teen is spending in front of or attached to electronic media. How many hours per day would you say? Here are a couple of things to consider. Parents Television Council research states that 54% of youth have a TV in their bedroom. 44% say they watch something different when they’re alone than they do when they’re with their parents. 66% of youth say that their peers are influenced by TV shows.

The Internet, movies, TV, video games, and music all have an influence on our teens’ mental health and well-being. American teens aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media—defined as the internet, cell phones, television, music, and video games. These electronic influences serve to mold their minds and shape their self-images … most predominantly in a negative and self-defeating way. An average of four hours a day our teens have help forming unrealistic expectations of self-image, which drive many of the documentable mental health disorders they could experience in their teen years. Depression, bipolar disorder, and in the extreme, anorexia, bulimia, and suicide become a reality in about 10-15% of today’s youth according to psychology professionals. That’s 15 out of 100 of our kids with a higher potential for damaging behavior. Are you comfortable with that number?

Developing positive attitudes and improving self-concept are only the tip of the iceberg. Add to that “want to” and the “how to” by developing skills such as time management, affirmations, self-leadership, and more. Flavor that with some goal setting. And we’re talking about YOUR TEENS’ Goals. Not yours, not schools, not the coaches … their own goals. And the goal setting process we refer to is quite specific. This will lead to those positive behavior changes you and your teens are striving for so they can seize spectacular.