Resilience and perseverance are two virtues that are often forgotten because of the difficulty attached to them. Parents often teach their kids a lot of things but these two virtues. This article explores why they’re valuable and how you can teach them to your children.
Teach Them That It’s Okay to Be Out of Their Comfort Zone
If we let our children only do the things they’re good at, they will feel complacent- while also failing to develop any extraneous skills outside of their comfort zone. And this is the value of allowing your children to do new things and let them try activities outside of their ballpark. This teaches your children that not everything will be easy, but it’s fine, and they should still try. When your children learn that it’s okay to venture out of their comfort zone, they’re most likely to be ambitious. They’ll be braver when it comes to trying out entrepreneurial efforts or going to premier universities; they’ll carry a sense of bravery throughout their whole life, all because they learned that should broaden their horizons.
Encourage Them to Explore Their Interests
Kids are naturally curious. They wonder about many things, and as parents, we should encourage this sense of curiosity even more. Even if it means your kid will jump from hobby to hobby, it’s perfectly fine. Young kids aren’t likely to find their passion that early in their life anyway, so help them find what they want to do by letting them explore their interests. When you try to force something on them, they’re less likely to feel attached to it. Just let them stumble upon a hobby, and both of you will be happier for it.
Let Them Feel Frustrated
No parent wants to see their child struggle with anything. We often feel like we should help them and relieve them of their struggles, especially because we’re parents. However, because we’re the parents, we should recognize our children’s need to experience struggle. Whenever they struggle to learn something or do an activity, don’t rush in immediately and help them. That simply teaches them that someone else can do it for them. Let them understand that some things really require struggle, and you have to persist through them. Once they learn this lesson, they can take on life without being stopped by obstacles and challenges.
Focus on Their Efforts, Not Their Accomplishments
If we obsess over perfection and accomplishment, then the act of doing is often discredited. Focusing too much on the end goal, whether it be a test score, physical goal, or even financial target, usually makes the process more stressful than it should be. Anxiety and stress often follow because of this. To prevent this from happening to your child, acknowledge their efforts. Praise them for trying, and constantly remind them that the journey is more important than the goal. It is often anyway, reading books shouldn’t be for getting good grades, but for learning, exercising isn’t just for losing weight but for living an active and healthy lifestyle.
Teach Them How to Brainstorm
When tasks become challenging, and children start to feel frustrated, it can be tempting to give in to their whining and take the task from them. This can be defined as helping them, but always allowing them to “get away” with dropping a complex task can damage their long-term ability to persevere. So instead of giving up on a task, develop their ability to keep going by going through possible solutions with them. Brainstorming is a great way to teach them that there is not just one correct and accepted way to solve problems. What’s more, brainstorming promotes creativity, and it’s a fun way to bond over tasks with them.
Manage Your Expectations and Show Them That Failing Is Okay
In contrast to brainstorming, knowing when to give up is an excellent skill to learn early in life. As adults, it’s essential to be aware of our expectations of children and how we take their failings. When we harness negativity and harsh disappointments over failures, we teach children to be afraid of them. This can also lead to them always seeking perfection or dropping any endeavor once the going gets tough. Instead, the model is realistic, objective, and forgiving.
It’s important to provide for your children’s basic needs and necessities. But it’s just as important to impart virtues and values that can help them in life. Being persevering and resilient will help them weather whatever challenges they face, setting them up for life.
