How do you motivate your children?  What type of motivational talks are appropriate?  Their minds and experiences aren’t the same as adults.  How do you really get through to them and explain how important their actions impact the rest of their life?  I not talking about morales you teach and the right from wrongs, I’m referring to lighting that fire within them.  As parents, do we have the ability to pull something out of them at a very young age?

Can we inspire a child early on by giving them strong motivational talks or are the teachings above what they can comprehend?  Can we have the influence on children the same way we do adults?  I believe everyone’s motivation is innate, including children.  Just like adults, some children can be motivated and other’s it may take an act of God.  Our job as parents is to get to the core of what and where you can push and inspire, so w can bring the best out of our children.

I had a personal situation this morning that made me think even deeper about how motivation can influence children.  I have three daughters that are all on varying degrees of the motivational spectrum.  One is and always has been very self motivated.  One is self motivated but needs a little push here and there.  One needs to be pulled like a stubborn horse that doesn’t want to go back into the stable.

I had my two younger daughters in the car, in the drop of lane, when we started to discuss upcoming opportunities at school.  We talked about different sport programs they would try out for and running for student council.

A little background, my middle daughter is the more reserved one of the three.  She doesn’t really like to put herself out there unless she is pushed.  At the beginning of last year, she let me know she was going to run for class representative.  Although I strongly encouraged her to do so, I was a little nervous since this was her first year at the school and she didn’t know a lot of people.  Most of the kids at the school have been together since kindergarten.  I was proud of her for having the courage to run.  It was completely unexpected and out of character.  To our surprise, she won the election and was 7th grade class represenative.  This was a great start of the school year and definitely gave her a boost of confidence.  She went on to run for school PRESIDENT at the end of last year and WON.

Now, for my youngest daughter, she has more confidence wrapped up in her little body than anyone I know.  She fears very little and she is willing to put herself out there more than anyone else in the family.  I was completely baffled when she told me she didn’t want to run for class representative because she was afraid to lose.  She would be embarrassed if she lost since her sister is the President of Student Council.

This got me thinking!   Can my words motivate her and push her through her fear to run for class representative?  Children need to take advantage of these opportunities to grow, even if they don’t win.  Conquer their fears and start the learning young!  You are not going to win everything and you learn from failure.  There is nothing they should be embarrassed about.  At the very least, they should be proud of their courage.  It’s difficult to explain this to an eleven year old so how influential can motivational talks be to young kids?  We will find out!