5 Life skills; humility

Dictionary definition

‘The quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance’ oxforddictionaries.com

Adult perspective

For the final part of this series, I wanted to look at humility within children. I came across quite a bit of advice in books on modesty in adults with the premise that is better to undersell then over deliver, than to do the opposite. I guess the exception to this rule would be during an interview, when you have a small window of opportunity to sell yourself.

 

Parent perspective

For me, the goal is again about striking the right balance. I want to instill the confidence to try new things in order to find out what they are best suited to. Everyone is good at something so whatever it is that they settle on, and eventually excel at, I want them to recognise their own ability to achieve without crushing the spirit of others who are not so fortunate. All whilst ensuring that they still have drive…

In the world of competitive martial arts, there have been occasions where I have recognised quite quickly that I have an opponent outclassed; as a result, I’ve made sure that I did enough to win but not to humiliate. I recognised that my opponent had trained hard to get to this point in their fight career and while they had not made the grade on this occasion, they would hopefully use the defeat as a springboard for more focus and eventual success. I know I certainly did.

I want my cubs to know:

• Everyone is good at something
• Find your thing; then excel
• The stairs to success have a couple of floors marked failure
• The green-eyed monster
• The power of quiet..

 

What a creepy photo…

 

Child’s perspective

If everyone is good at something, and I truly believe that they are, then it’s the appreciation that no one is good at everything. It slightly eases the pressure on them, without diminishing the desire to try new things.

Once you find that thing, then do it to the extreme…

I remind them that many will see the end result of success but most will be blind to the hard work that leads to it. Failure is necessary as it provides learning opportunities and [for me] serves to increase humility.

Defeating envy. Spot it first. Recognise why it happens then recognising the signs in others. There are two options of dealing with envy in others;  1) Ignore it or 2) Offer advice; after all, envy in others can be borne of a desire to achieve.

As for envy in oneself, I refer you back to my first point.

My favourite skill is silence. I doubt I want the cubs to use it the way I do because I’ve managed to weaponise it. Actions speak louder than words; let the empty cans make all the noise.

Conclusion.

If you judge a fish its ability to climb a tree… that  watershed moment when they nail something that they enjoy doing is priceless. The motivational driver has switched from external to internal, in that they now want more of that feeling so will keep doing it. They then recognise that they can replicate this feeling in other ventures.

The trick is to celebrate the success appropriately which I don’t think I’d mastered myself.

Hopefully the cubs will find their own balance.

BSD