Raising Successful Children in the 21st Century

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at my children’s school. The talk was about raising successful children in the 21st century. There so many aspects of success that it would be impossible to cover them all in one short session so I focused on the following five points which I believe to be very pertinent to

Successful Kids Have Strong Social Skills

Social skills are essential for raising happy and successful children. Now there is even more evidence to support this statement… Social Interactions can Enhance Creativity Social interactions can help us to be more creative, and creativity is one of the most important qualities we can have. It has been said many times – creativity does not exist in a vacuum. Indeed,

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Alongside Carol Dweck, Michael Merzenich, and Barbara Arrowsmith is another brilliantly inspiring researcher I have been following since her TED Talk on Grit – Angela Duckworth. She has devoted much of her work researching grit – the common link between individuals who succeed in all walks of life – and it has been most enlightening. Unfortunately, there

Personal Lessons on the Growth Mindset

After a difficult sports experience at the start of the year, I was really pleased to see G1 doing so much better at his school swimming gala. His overall attitude and approach to the event were leaps and bounds ahead. He participated and I could see he was really trying his hardest. For that, I am grateful.

How to Raise Gritty Kids

Ever since Angela Lee Duckworth’s talk on TED about Grit being the key to success, I’ve been seeing more and more articles on the need to raise gritty kids. While the idea is great, putting it into practice is not quite that simple. Duckworth herself is not entirely certain if grit can be taught, though there are some who

Grit, Mental Toughness, and Sisu – the Qualities that Separate Excellence from Mediocrity

If you want your children to be successful in life, you need to help them develop grit. In an earlier post on this subject, we touched on some of the ways children can learn to be “gritty”: teaching them about the “growth mindset” giving them opportunities to face adversity But surely there’s got to be

What Your Child Really Needs to be Successful in Life

What’s the real key to success? According to Angela Lee Duckworth, the answer is “grit”. Who is successful and why? In all her research, the answer kept coming back to one quality – grit. I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my question was, who

A Powerful Message for Our Children – “How to Succeed When You Have No Special Skills”

I have always loved these inspirational stories about parents who stumble on an activity that becomes their child’s passion… Like the 4 year old who makes paper dresses… That kid who reviews books on his own blog… The amazing kid who shoots “impossible” hoops… And then that kid goes on to become something amazing… Akiane

Increase Your Performance by Changing Your Posture

Did you know you can improve your performance just by changing your body language? If you modify your body language by changing your facial expression or adjusting your pose, you can alter your body’s physiology and that can affect how you feel and how well you perform. Here’s the clincher: you can make yourself feel

Successful Kids have a Strong Foundation in the 3 R’s

There is more to success than academics, but I believe there are three key basics that you can’t do without – the 3 R’s (reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic), although why they call it the 3 R’s is beyond me. Yes, the 3 R’s are important. Every parent knows that. Why would I even have to write about