Whenever I talk with people about our two sons my remark is often the same… their personalities are polar opposites – one guy is shy, has lower self confidence, tends to get down on himself and frustrated much easier and I know he misses out on opportunities for enjoyment in life while the other guy is more self assured, outgoing, but tends to overlook opportunties because he’s always moving full steam ahead!
In the early stages of school, lower self esteem is a big issue, the new social interaction required in school, the built-in demand for high levels of self confidence in the school curriculum all demand that our shy guy improves his self confidence and fast.
Can any of you relate? Do you have kids that hang back, tend to sink into the background and don’t speak up or have somewhat of a negative opinion of themselves?
It’s not in every situation mind you – it never is…but overall we want to help our kids have as high a level of self confidence as possible don’t we?
As we grow, our influence as parents decreases – friends, peers and others in society gain the upper hand, so if we are to do something to give our kids a better jump, then improving their self confidence right NOW is important.
In ‘Beyond Greatness’ we highlight the steps we as adults can take to find underlying purpose in our lives and gain confidence resulting in far more happiness and achievement in our lives.
Here’s some good advice from a recent article I came across on improving self confidence from the Sylvan Learning Center:
• Allow their children to be free to succeed and to make mistakes.
• Compliment their children and don’t compare them to other siblings.
• Make time to talk to their children every day.
Perhaps the hardest thing for a parent to do is to listen objectively and allow your children to make mistakes that will help them gain an understanding by themselves of their own abilties and capability to deal with everything that comes up in life.
By being overly controlling or continually subjecting your opinions on our kids we teach them that they may NOT be able to deal with life creating an underlying fear leading to low levels of self confidence.
Not surprising, often our inability to have patience, let our kids make mistakes, and spend time with them owes itself to a low self confidence level in the parents…the real purpose behind the lessons in ‘Beyond Greatness’
Jeff
Leave a Comment