There are so many negative messages around and directed at young people, especially from those surrounding them, like the media they see and read, and the messages they hear from adults and friends. How can we as the adults in their life help them develop a positive, confident attitude while teaching them how to do the same for themselves?
Focus on the good things that they are doing, identifying their unique strengths and expressing your appreciation for those strengths. It is easier for both us as adults and them as students to quickly see the faults or the things we would do differently. Seeing the good will help our children to do the same with themselves and others. This is not about over praising them, rather an acknowledgment of their unique qualities.
Focus on learning and thinking critically as well as creatively. Encouraging our children to learn to think and learn with open minds makes a powerful difference in their life and how they feel about school and learning, building their confidence in themselves.
Take care of the physical health. Encouraging our children to be active, by being active ourselves, eating in a healthy manner, all lends itself to feeling positive and confident.
Having a mission and setting goals, both as a family and as an individual gives us something to look forward to and work towards. As you meet your challenges and work through them your confidence increases. Working this together as a family helps our children to feel good about themselves.
Give back to others. Helping others not only helps us have gratitude for what we have, but it also gives us a great feeling, knowing that we were able to assist someone else. Confidence comes from seeing the accomplishments of our services to others.
The messages we send our children every day has an effect on the feelings they have for themselves. Are they proud of who they are, the way they learn, their physical health and what they are doing to maintain it, do they know where they are going and why, and are they showing gratitude for all they have and give to others? Doing these things makes every child and adult feel positive about themselves.