How to inspire your child

How many times do you read an article or biography of a high achiever and see that nothing came easy to them? People who achieve great success in life have often failed many times – JK Rowling had a stack of rejection slips before her first Harry Potter manuscript was accepted – and hard work and persistence are the flipside to talent and luck.

According to one of the chapters in David Shenk's fascinating and well-researched book, The Genius In All Of Us, we are not just the product of our genes but also of our environment and parents play a pivotal role in how their offspring fare in life. Shenk expains that there are four key guideposts to helping our children towards excellence*:

1. Believe that each child has enormous potential and it is up to us to use whatever resources we have to exploit that potential.
2. Support but don't smother – a parent must set limits and high expectations but not use affection as a reward for success or lack of it as a punishment for failure.
3. Persistence and self-discipline can be encouraged by demonstrating self-control yourself and giving children the chance to practice this by not giving in to their every plea so they learn to deal with frustration and want.
4. Embrace failure – parents are not supposed to make things easier for children, they are supposed to present, monitor and modulate challenges.

These four keys are an excellent basis for good parenting – whatever we may think about genes and innate talent. Guidelines to helping our children to achieve their potential in any way are always welcome and, if you have the time, do read The Genius In All of Us and you may discover new ways in which to enrich your own life too.

* Adapted from Chapter Eight: How to Ruin (or Inspire) a Kid

Published by Icon Books, The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genes, Talent and Intelligence is Wrong is available from Amazon.