Every parent wants his or her child to grow up to be an achiever. Pushing your child to study harder, to do better on their next test, or to get up and sing a song in front of twenty relatives is not going to do it.
If you take a look at the most successful people in the world, many have certain habits that have contributed greatly to their success. Here are some of the habits of successful people, and how you can inculcate them in your child.
Hard work
Possibly one of the best habits you can inculcate in your children is that of hard work. If your child is not used to working hard, chances are that he will find ways to get away with doing less work. How many times have you seen people that do just enough work to avoid getting fired? And then they get upset when they get passed over for a promotion, they grumble about their jobs, hate their bosses, and are basically discontented.
Perseverance
Teach your child to persevere at whatever he is doing, and not to lose heart too soon. If you enroll your child in a sport, encourage him to stick with that sport and try and reach a certain level, so he is a good player in that sport. See that he doesn't give up too soon. Of course, he doesn't need to reach national levels, but he can be one of the good players in the sports club. This will help him later on in life. Things go wrong almost everyday, and if your child has staying power he will weather out all the storms without quitting.
Setting Priorities
Although you feel your child's priority should be his homework, perhaps his music lesson is more important to him. Teach your child to prioritise his activities. Don't set his priorities for him. Instead, work with him. The best way to do this would be to prepare a list of things to do for the day, together. Of course, your child has to do his homework, but give him a choice as to when he wants to do it. Most children would want to put off doing their homework to the last possible moment. You could work around this by perhaps telling your child that his favourite show is coming on television at that time, so perhaps he could finish his homework now, so he will get to watch his favourite show. Gradually your child will start figuring out what is more important to him, and will start setting priorities accordingly.
Sticking to Commitments
Always make your child stick to his word. If your child says that he will do something at a particular time, then make sure you don't let him escape his commitments, because then giving him a choice about when he will get something done, will be a meaningless exercise.
Playing Devil's Advocate
Encourage your children to look at situations from another person's point of view. So when your child has a fight with a friend, ask him what may have caused his friend to behave in a particular way. You don't have to play Devil's advocate endlessly, as your child may stop confiding in you because he feels he gets no sympathy from you at all. Show him that you're on his side, but just encourage him to look through the situation through all view points, and then let him come to his own conclusion as to who's fault it was. This will help your child gain a better understanding of human behaviour, helping him become a better manager.
