All opinions are mine and mine alone.
There are many things that determine how successful and happy our lives are going to be. But perhaps the one at the top of the list are the lessons that we carry with us. If we have those, then we’ll be more likely to know how to navigate our careers, relationships, and life with success.
It’s much easier to learn these lessons when you’re a child rather than an adult. When you’re an adult, you often have to unlearn some things before you can begin to learn. When you’re a child, you’re a blank canvas.
So if you’re a parent, you have a pretty big responsibility! In this blog, we’re going to run through some of the best lessons that you can teach your little ones while they’re young. If they have the following lessons with them, they’ll be on their way to not only have a happy life — they’ll also be more likely to be good humans, too.
Being Honest
It’s much easier to lie. We can lie to protect ourselves, to avoid difficult moments, to simply run from the truth. But while the short-term advantages of lying and being deceitful can be pleasurable, when spread over a long-term basis, they’re only damaging — both to the person being deceitful and the person or people they’re deceiving. As such, it’s important that your children know that it’s always better to be honest.
Of course, you have to create an environment where this is valued. If you punish your children for telling the truth, then why would they do that? You might have to work on your own response to the truth if you’re going to teach it to your kids first.
Self-Worth
If there’s one thing that all people should know, it’s that there’s not one person on this earth who has any more of a right to be here than they do. Self-worth is hard to quantify, but you can feel when someone has it and when someone doesn’t. A person with low self-worth would be more likely to accept poor treatment, for example. Of course, while it’s important to teach self-worth, it’s also key not to push your kids too far in the first direction, either. There’s no one better than you, but equally, you’re not better than anyone else, either. Both ends of the spectrum can be damaging!
What’s Going On Inside?
Many of us focus on what’s going on externally. But it’s just as important to focus on what’s going on internally, too. If we don’t have that information, then we’ll be more likely to live our lives as a permanent reaction to our emotions. That’s fine if you’re in a happy mood, but if you’re sad or angry? Then you could end up creating more problems. This is something that adults struggle with because they never learned how to recognize and handle their emotions. If you can teach your kids how to do this, then you’ll be giving them a fantastic tool with which they can handle life. To get started, take a read of the article, ‘Teaching Feelings: 7 Ways To Help Kids Understand Their Emotions.’ It’s a gift you can give your children that’ll serve them well throughout the whole of their life.
Politeness and Respect
It’s very often the small things that make the biggest difference in life. Politeness and respect aren’t glamorous, but they are deeply important. When you’re teaching your kid these qualities, make sure that you’re doing more than simply telling them to say please and thank you because they have to. This is a chance to talk about the interconnectivity of society and, more broadly, why everyone they meet deserves respect (at least in the early days — some people will prove to be unworthy of it).
The Importance of Fun
If there’s one thing that’ll make your child wish they would stay young forever, it’ll be the miserable, non-fun existence of adults. There are plenty of grown adults who just don’t seem to have any fun anymore! Something happens when they enter “the real world.” We could talk about why that might be the case, but the main reason might just be that they were never taught that they should carry on having fun whenever possible. If your child has a youth where fun and good times is truly valued, then they’ll be likely to go on to have an adult life that’s packed with good times.
Gratitude
We live in a society that pushes us to always want more. It doesn’t ask us to be happy with what we’ve got. However, as people who have studied gratitude will know, there’s a lot of value in taking the time to sit down and appreciate everything you have in your life. Indeed, one study showed that keeping a gratitude diary every day can have a dramatic impact on happiness levels. Your child is never going to have everything in life. But they’re going to have plenty of items, people, memories, and other positive things that make their life much more bearable. And if they know the importance of gratitude, they’ll never be too far from that opinion.
Not Everyone Will Be Your Friend
We mentioned earlier that we should all treat other people with respect and dignity. But it’s true that no matter what we do, there will be people that don’t like us — or who we don’t like. If your child is social and likes others, then a sense of rejection can be troubling — and can even make them venture into the role of ‘people pleaser.’ However, it’s important that they know that there’ll be some people who just aren’t interested in being their friend, for whatever reason. That’s completely fine. If they go into life with enthusiasm and happiness, they’ll meet plenty of people who do want to be their friend, anyway.
It’s OK to Fall
If you take a look at some of the most successful people in life, you’ll find that many of them have a long list of failures under their belt. And if there’s one thing to learn from this, it’s that failure isn’t the issue. What is a problem is if you have never put yourself in a position to fail in the first place. If your child is going to achieve big things or simply reach their potential, then they’ll need to take risks from time to time — and some of those risks will not pay off. It doesn’t matter. At the end of their life, they’ll be able to look back and know that they gave it their all, and that they left nothing on the table. There’s beauty in that.
Prioritize Yourself
Life is going to throw a lot of responsibilities and duties at your child. They’ll have other people, their jobs, friends, and so on and so forth all wanting a piece of their time, energy, and money. The only way they can navigate these hurdles is if they prioritize themselves from time to time. Sometimes, the only thing we need is to spend some time by ourselves. It’s not selfish to look after yourself — in fact, it’s the only correct way to act, sometimes.
Be Yourself
Finally, make sure that your child knows that they should absolutely be themselves in life. Everyone else is taken! They’re going to have plenty that makes them stand out from the crowd. And they’re also only going to be here one time. Anything less than being themselves and letting their light shine through should be forgotten!
Speak Your Mind