“Self-Confidence arises from ‘success imprints’ that were acquired early in life through some kind of positive life-experience. It comes from within and is imprinted their through past successes…. Those fortunate people who were told by some important role model or mentor that they were bright, hard workers, or destined for success had a message imprinted onto their psyche, and most of the time have lived to fulfill that prophesy…. Anyone who has successfully achieved something that was thought to be difficult or impossible has experienced a success imprint.”
These words come from Dr. Gene Landrum’s book 8 Keys to Greatness. In this excellent book Dr. Landrum studied the lives of men and women who rose to the top of their fields. Men and women like: Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Catherine the great, Frank Lloyd Write, Oprah Windfrey, and Michael Jordan. The book linked many common traits to each one of these great people, but one paragraph stood out for me.
Do you see the significance of this paragraph? To me it means; Kids who experience success early in life can build on that success. How great is that! What a great thing to not only understand as a parent, but also implement… Personally, I want my son to experience as much success as possible as early as possible so that it will be “imprinted” on his mind. This tells me I should pay close attention to the things I do and especially the things I say.
Tell your children you believe in them and remember that telling is not enough - we must show. Think about that nice mom who didn’t even realize she was sabotaging her son self-esteem by hesitating so much on the decision of taking martial arts. She was worried he “might quit.” What she was saying is “I don't believe in you!”
Set goals for your children and help them work toward them, just don’t accomplish the goal for them. If they get off course, re-adjust. And keep in mind that failure imprints our left from being a quitter. We want success imprints not failure imprints.
