A Kid’s Mindset For Success!! Teaching Kids to Be Successful: Part 4

July 29th, 2013

During my “career-path” conversation with my son Jai, he was able to visualize himself, his surroundings and companions in his adult future. A kid’s mindset for success! The final step was to solidify the pathway that would take him to his version of a successful life: A Plan, Natalie Cook’s fifth P.

Natalie Cook stood on a chair for this photo!

A Plan, Natalie Cook’s Fifth P

It’s always a good idea to sit down and plot out short term and long term goals, especially for entrepreneurial kids who are cultivating a kid’s mindset for success.

On an adult level, well-made plans should be a natural component of what you perceive is your life’s purpose, your “Why” in life. (Even kids that are entrepreneurial won’t have solidified their life purpose to this extent, however.)

Sean Rasmussen, our internet marketing mentor, taught me a trick that can be successful with kids, as well:

Write on small piece of paper an intention, but don’t use the future tense. For instance, you might write “I have attracted a healthy, motivated business person to my business this month,” instead of, “I will attract…” A child might write, “I have kicked two goals at this Saturday’s soccer match.”

Place the written intention under your pillow, in your wallet, or wherever you will view it regularly. The idea is to set a specific and realistic goal. The laws of the universe will then go into effect to bring your goal to fruition… that is, if you see it, believe it, and feel it.

People who practice this mindset for success technique go on to set bigger and grander intentions, over time.

Having a Defined Goal

My friend, Michael Clouse, says that not having a clearly defined plan is like an archer who aims at a target with a blindfold on. There’s no chance of hitting the bulls eye if you are unable to see it!

Vision Board Builds a Kid’s Mindset for Success

Another technique is visualizing goals using a vision board. Select the experiences and things that you would like to have in your life and make a poster board of these, using images and graphics. Place the vision board in a place that you will view daily. Visualize the items on the vision board and do so as if they were real and already present in your life.

Facing your fears! Walking on broken glass!

Positive Affirmations Leads to a Success Mindset in Kids

Speaking positive affirmations aloud two or three times a day is another way of setting your intention and belief. Again, these should be in the present tense.

Natalie Cook likes to declare her intentions and plans before a public audience, making herself accountable to a lot of people for achieving her aims.

So be bold! Change your way of thinking. Get rid of the negatives. Affirm the positives. Make sure that your plans are well-aligned with your life vision. Set grand goals, and follow your plan! This is a kid’s Mindset For Success!

Coming up in our Mindset for Success Series

Next up is the “P” I’ve added to Natalie’s other five. After reading this, can you guess what that might be? Leave your guess in the comments or on Facebook.

The winner will be announced in the next post (we have a small prize for them!!) Every success!

PS We are super excited! We’re heading overseas for an adventure of a lifetime! We will be meeting with and learning from some of the most successful people in the world and catching up with family (another blog post in the making!).

Our final Success P article in the series will have to wait until we get back. That may be three weeks time. Here is a sneak peek at where we are going and what we will be doing…

Teaching Your Kids To Be Successful Part 3: Perseverance

July 23rd, 2013

A baby learns to walk by falling over many times. An entrepreneur learns to succeed after stumbling along the way. Teaching yourself, and your kids, to be successful in business requires Natalie’s fourth P: Perseverance (perseverance on their part, and yours!)

For example, Cathy and I have learned that in the business of referring people to an opportunity, many people will just not be interested. With enterprising teens watching, how do parents set an example to persevere in the face when people say “No”? Well, the mindset for success is to celebrate the “No.” After so many of them, a “Yes” will inevitably follow. One of my mentors, David Wood, says to do the Happy Dance whenever you get a “No,” because the rejection only moved you one step further towards the “Yes.”

Your kids, whether entrepreneurial or not, are going to like to see that Happy Dance, making it a practical way to help seal the behavioural pattern of success in their mindsets. Being able to overcome rejection in business, rejection from friends and rejection from family is paramount for kids to be successful.

Our vocabulary also plays a huge part in our ability to persevere. In our family “Can’t” is a swear-word and not allowed to be used at any time; “Can” is encouraged. Many people, including kids, are quick to give up when the going gets tough, saying, “I can’t” rather than “I can.” The little kids in my family actually believe “Can’t” is a swear word, right up there with the other big four letter words!

Another phrase to abandon is, “It’s too hard.” Natalie showed us a little trick she used to change her perception of what is hard. She bought a toy button that calls out, “That was easy!” when you press it. Natalie would strap this toy button to her volleyball net pole. Whenever she did something very well that was also very difficult, she would run up to press the button: “That was easy!” Try it for yourself… press the button below!

Being the best in the world at your sport certainly has its challenges, and my kids would love to try out one of those buttons. You can get them from Amazon.com. But whether or not, the point is not to say “That was hard!”

These tactics to increase the level of perseverance in kids and keeping them on a successful track comes easier when you have a Plan. This is the fifth P we’ll talk about next week.

Make sure you have a look at the short video (click the image above) we made of Natalie Cook giving a special message to our kids. Can you spot the BLOOPER?

If you missed last weeks article “Amber’s Reflection of Green SuperCamp” here it is.

Green SuperCamp Amber’s Reflection

July 15th, 2013

For our readers who were expecting Part 3 to our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success” series of articles, I’d like to let you know that will be up very soon and it will be well worth the read.

Flynn and Amber Howitt have just returned from a Young Leaders Camp in Bali, and as it is so fresh and exciting I thought we would interrupt our 5 Part Series and share with you some snippets of Amber’s experience whilst on camp.

Amber and new friends.

Amber and Maddi leading the run.

Before I hand you over to Amber, I would like to give our readers a little back ground about the Green SuperCamp, which is held every year at Green School Bali.

Indonesia. In 2012 three of our children (Kaitlin, Jai and Flynn) attended the camp and returned full of experience and wisdom. The camp is designed to create young leaders to care for our future world. The camp does this by building their confidence, encouraging them to think big, and by giving them the skills to learn, interact and to step out of their comfort zones.

Amber participating in a team performance.

Flynn learning to trust.

This year Amber was old enough to go along too. She was very excited as she had heard all the awesome stories and learning from her siblings’ camp experiences last year. Also a bunch of friends from Western Australia were coming along as well (Maddi Barrett, Macy Hobson, Georgia Dewar and Lachlan McRoberts). To learn more of what Green SuperCamp is about and to understand the philosophies of Green School, you’ll have to click the links to earlier articles.

So enough from me… here is Amber Howitt’s Green SuperCamp Reflection…

Green Super Camp, for me, was an amazing experience! Everyone there is treated evenly and kindly. No one is excluded or mistreated, so everyone is happy. Your phones and valuables are given in, but you can reunite with your valuables almost every night to contact your parents.

Grinding grain.

Flynn and his Super Camp team.

The Green SuperCamp itself is built mainly out of bamboo. It is nurtured and cared for by the people within it. They use water from their lake and purify it. People from the world outside Green School can come collect the water for free and use it in their homes. Green School is meant so people around the community can be involved with the school. They make their own power using solar energy and grow their own food in food gardens.

Goal Setting Steps

The camp has inspired me to do more with my life, rather than just sit around and be… normal. It has inspired me to take challenges, adventures and think of the things I could be doing. Writing books and travelling around the world are two of my crazy ideas… those things might be a little hard for someone at the age of eleven though. But I can try to work up to that goal. The steps for goal making are:

Design it
Outline it
In your face (tackle barriers)
Take action!

High ropes course. Facing fears!

Flynn floating on hands.

Quantum Strategies

We were taught Quantum Reading and Writing. I improved my reading speed with the same comprehension by over 100%. I concentrated by using the Alpha State. Alpha State is a technique to relax and to concentrate better. The steps to Alpha State are:

Sit up
Breath in and out
Close eyes
Think of a peaceful place
Roll eyes up and down
Open eyes
Concentrate

Maddi preparing the home grown food.

Macy and Georgia

Relationships

The friendships you can make at Green SuperCamp are really special. I made friends with both team leaders and kids from all over the world. It is really easy to do so because everyone wants to make friends. Sometimes your relationships can last forever. Green Super Camp teaches you how to have the courage to become friends. No one is alone at Green School or Green Super Camp.

I also learnt techniques to help me learn. These help me to improve my relationship with my teachers. We call this “SLANT” (acronym)

Here are the “Tips for Learning” or “SLANT”.

Sit up
Lean Forward
Ask Questions
Nod your head
Talk to your teacher

Thanking and Apologising

Flynn Saying goodbye to new friends!

We also learnt the importance of thanking people and apologising. We were taught how to do this properly. We call the steps to thanking “OTFD” or “Open The Front Door”.

Observation, Think, Feel, Desire

We call the steps to Apologise, “AAMR”, pronounced “A Mr!”

Acknowledge, Apologise, Make it Right, Recommit

Eight Keys of Success

Lastly we were taught the “Eight Keys of Success”. These are the keys that keep you on course for success! For each of these keys we learn a different hand movement. This helps us to remember them. Here they are:

Integrity
Failure Leads to Success
Speak With Good Purpose
This Is It
Commitment
Ownership
Flexibility
Balance

If you read this and think “Nah… my child wouldn’t want to go to that camp!” Think again! Any child, from any place, no matter what, will want to go to Green Super Camp. Thank you to my parents and camp sponsors for making it possible for me to attend Green SuperCamp. Thank you to my friends and new friends that supported me on camp. Thank you to all the team leaders and facilitators that taught me all the tools I need for life. Lastly, thank you my team, GO TEAM H!

Thanks Amber for your reflection. Jai, Kaitlin and Lachlan are currently on the Senior Green Super Camp. Here is a link to the Green SuperCamp Face Book page. There are lots of photos to look at if you’re interested. And here is a link to an article we wrote last year on the Green SuperCamp.

Here are Jai’s and Flynn’s Reflections from last years Green Super Camp.
Kaitlin shared why she wanted to attend the Green SuperCamp here.

Our “Teaching Your Kids To Achieve Success” series will continue next week with Part 3 (Part 1 and Part 2). Amber would love to hear your comments. Be sure to ask her some questions. The comment box is below this article. To subscribe to Enterprise for Kids just add your name and email on the form on the left side bar.

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Monthly Archives: July 2013