As we hit our stride in this school year, now is the time to take the step back and focus on a bigger picture for our kids and families. As I've said before, we need to make sure kids learn about what success really means and that we start teaching them the pathway to greatness at the earliest of ages. I spent years as an education administrator getting children excited about learning and envisioning what their future could be. When I made my own transition into a businessman, author and public speaker, I used those same tools and skills, but used them to get adults excited about their professional and financial success. I realized then that there is a great divide between the success of children and adults for absolutely no reason. The reality is we need a life-long focus on greatness and we need to begin the search for success at the earliest of ages. We must embrace the notion that your origin does not equal your destination and if we want a successful America tomorrow, we need to empower kids today with positive messages about their potential. That's why I wrote my newest book: to help families create the pathway to positivity and success. I want to share with you here some ways you can help model greatness in your family:
- Talk about greatness in all of its forms. Success isn't just money and fancy things, it means happiness and fulfillment. How can you as a family think together about how to turn the things our children enjoy into skills for the future? By showing our children that achievement in all forms can bring happiness, we create well-rounded adults. Greatness in the classroom, on the playing field, with musical instruments and art supplies can all translate into success later in life. The name of the game is showing that mastery and achievement are the ways forward, because everyone has different skills and abilities and because there isn't one single path to success, everyone can get there. Success does not happen overnight, but it happens over time.
The bottom line is that if the mind can conceive it and the heart can believe it, then the hands can achieve it. While there are no cookie-cutter approaches to ensure our children's future success, there are lessons, ways of thinking and ways of being that we can introduce to children. It's never too early to start. We need to have conversations from the earliest ages about the big pictures of life: about what great means, what great people are, and what makes them that way. By being open and transparent, we can bring out the greatness inside of all of us, for a better family, better community, a better world. Pursue greatness! #TGOTI