Practice Makes Perfect by: Thoughtbrain o Flickr
Writing about this subject for UNDOdigital, this week got me thinking of my children a lot. I remembered all those times when I gave some task to my daughter and she came back telling me she couldn’t do it. After inspecting her approach, most often than not, I see a lack of willingness to do the task. I then correct her: “You can do it, maybe you just don’t want to. Let’s try it again.”
Delegate tasks
As a parent, I must give tasks to my children so they understand that we’re all on the same group. We all need to work together to achieve our goals. When we help each other (as a family) we create a better bond and we get things done faster. Plus you can bet it’ll be easier for them to help us when they’re teenagers, if we’ve taught them to work since they’re little.
Never let them Give Up
I never give up on my children, and am always remembering them that they can do it. If something seems difficult, I encourage them to try harder, and keep at it until they achieve it. Perseverance was an important lesson, my father taught me and I intend to pass it along. And if they see how I don’t give up on them, it’s more than likely they won’t give up on themselves either.
Protecting them from their Future Selves
When older, we more bound to give up at first glance. If a task seems impossible, we let it pass us, not even trying. But if you are brought up to look at impossible tasks in the eye and not be intimidated by them, you’ll be a better adult for it. So the next time you child says: “I can’t do it” reply with a loving and strong: “Come on! you haven’t tried hard enough! I know you can do it”
Doc Brown had it right
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” Doc Brown from Back to the Future told that to Marty back in 1985, and when the latter got stuck in 1955, he impressed the thought upon his teenage father. Besides thinking how big a geek I am for remembering such trivial stuff from movies, you have to admit that it makes a lot o sense. The same thing applies to children. If they play a video game, they will not drop it until they complete it, right? well, what about the daily tasks at hand? If they devote at least half of the energy they devote to the Nintendo 3DS’ and PSP’s, to the tasks we give them, they will master them in no time. It all comes back to perseverance. Doing things with passion and not letting the ball drop until the task is accomplished.
Do things as many times as you need to, until you are satisfied with the results, and teach the same to your kids. Remember… Practice makes perfect! Makes sense? How do you do it?
Rick,
I have to agree that in most occasions We end up giving up on ourselves and not trying harder.
Sometimes using the excuse of not having time is one of the closest approach. These last few days I have been focusing on setting up a website for a client on wordpress. As always I learn new things with new projects. I find a pattern that I learn the most when I focus and not let go of something I have not been able to solve.
On many occasions we end up wanting to learn how to to a simple task but never take the time to do the research or give it a try.
I guess if we sometimes fail it makes it even more difficult to pass that knowledge through others.
Just remember, mafrén, failure is an opportunity to do things better. We must learn to use defeat to conjure up our next wins.
Thanks for reading and commenting, buddy!