Why Disappointments Are Essential For Raising Awesome Kids.

The 7 Essentials: #6 - A Culture of Innovation

As parents, we'll do anything to keep our children from disappointment. We can't bear to see them sad, but in doing so, we can rob them of one of the most important skills they need to learn to succeed in life. Tenacity and the ability to creatively look at failures as stepping stones is the lifeblood of innovation.

The sixth building block in the RHOPE Strategy (Rhinehart's Hierarchy of People Empowerment) is a culture of Innovation. This answers the question, “Do I have what it takes?” This is one of the most emotionally volatile elements of all. We can’t pretend that children don't ask themselves this question so we must satisfy it.

We do this through a culture of innovation that teaches tenacity, determination, and celebration of the process. Innovation teaches our children to see the potential in everything.

Every great inventor knows that what some may deem as failures are actually stepping stones in the journey to success. Only when there is safety in failing will our children try.

A culture of innovation defuses peer pressure because children who learn to deal with failures, injustices and disappointments are far more likely to stay their own course, then follow another’s.

Here is your action item

The key to bringing a culture of innovation into your home is to celebrate the journey of exploration, embrace failures as secret successes, and never allow your children to quit.

I used to own a music conservatory that had 600 sessions per week. I had one rule. No one was allowed to quit. They could choose to go on vacation at the end of each term, but they were not allowed to quit mid-session.

Why? So they would not develop the mentality that they could just give up when things got hard or they got bored. Your action item is to establish a “Can Do” mindset by insisting your children complete every task, even if you have to do it with them… and often will.

Parent Note: For every Heavenly principal there's an earthly application; like the two sides of a coin. You can apply one aspect or the other depending on your world view, but when both are applied the results are extraordinary. There are 7 Essential Elements required for children to be emotionally safe that happen to correspond with 7 critical aspects of our identity. They are intrinsic by nature. When these are satisfied, your children are much less likely to succumb to peer pressure because they are empowered with tools to meet their emotional (intrinsic/spiritual) needs.