Getting kids motivated to do the things that will help them become successful adults is not an easy job for parents. Part of the reason for this is that kids can’t see the immediate benefit of getting straight A’s. High school, college and the adult world are far into the future. It’s also difficult for children to define their dreams. The few that can visualize their dreams and see their future are better able to focus on achievement. Parents who want their kids to live up to their potential, need to awaken their genius. You do this by giving your children a WHY. When you give your children a WHY you unlock the key to their subconscious mind, which is where genius lies.
The subconscious makes up 80% of our brain mass. The other 20% is the conscious part of our brain. This 80% controls our autonomic system, directs our behavior, stores our habits, it is where our emotions reside and warehouses our beliefs. Most thoughts created by our conscious mind are never allowed into our subconscious mind. It’s intentional. Every day we are bombarded with data taken in by our senses. The subconscious has no choice but to filter and limit the data it takes in. This is why only emotionalized thoughts are allowed in. The subconscious recognizes only emotionalized thoughts. It ignores all others. Emotionalized thoughts are like computer software coding for the subconscious. They reprogram our subconscious, which then goes to work to alter our lives by altering our behavior. Our subconscious mind communicates with our conscious mind through intuition, hunches, the voice inside our head etc. Beliefs represent emotionalized thought programming the subconscious mind has accepted. They represent mini computer programs; mini apps.
These activities help reprogram your child’s mind. They turn the success switch on in their brain. The subconscious starts to nudge your child into changing their behavior, without your child even realizing what’s happening. These activites work because they tap into the natural way our subconscious mind works. Before long, good habits are formed and these good habits help your child reach their full potential in life. When you help your child find their WHY, you awaken their genius.
Here are the five activities that will awaken your child’s genius:
The 20-Year Letter
Have your child write a letter to themselves twenty years into the future. Have them imagine it is twenty years from now and they are writing a letter to themselves explaining what their life is like in in the future. In a perfect world what would they like their life to look like twenty years from now? You want them to paint a picture of their life twenty years from now that is the perfect, ideal life. It is the life they would want to have if they could snap their fingers today. Have them describe in their letter where they live, what kind of house own, what car they drive, what they do for a living, how much money they make etc. In this future letter they will describe what they’ve done over the past twenty years; the goals they accomplished and the dreams that have come true. It is essentially, a blueprint for their future life.
Dream List
Have your child list all of the dreams they would like to come true. Hold nothing back, no matter how impractical. This exercise will help awaken the subconscious mind, which is where all genius lies.
The Victory Log
Have your child list all of their successes in life, no matter how small. This exercise helps shift your child’s thinking from negative to positive and helps them become success-conscious. Instead of focusing on their mistakes and failures in life you are teaching your child to focus on their successes. Have them add to this Victory Log for three months. After three months, success thinking will become a habit.
Create a Vision Board
Have your child create a Vision Board. A Vision Board is a visual representation of all of the the things your child desires in life. Help them cut out and paste pictures from the Internet or magazines onto their Vision Board. Pictures such as the ideal house they would like to live in in the future, the ideal car they would like to drive in the future, the ideal job they will have in the future, how much money they make at that job, how much money they have in their bank account in the future, places they would like to vacation, fun things they would like to do, people they would like to meet or become friends with etc. Have them keep their Vision Board where they can see it every day. Ask them to look at it in the morning, just after waking up, and at night, just before going to bed. Our subconscious thinks in picture. A Vision Board is the language of our subconscious.
Reward Strategy
The Reward Strategy is another way to shift your child’s thinking. Here’s how it works: every time your child experiences a success in life, no matter how small, they reward themselves. This reward can be any small thing that they like. Candy, going to the movies, going to their favorite place to eat, a gift, a milkshake etc. By rewarding themselves they are reprogramming their subconscious for success. The subconscious receives the message that success is good and rewarded. This programming becomes part of the software code of the subconscious mind. Their subconscious will begin seeking more success in life in order to receive more rewards. Behind the scenes, their subconscious works to direct them towards success because it wants to be rewarded. It becomes a success guided missile, moving them toward success through the use of hunches and intuition. When the subconscious is programmed for success, hunches and intuition become beneficial and help guide your children to do things that will create success in their lives.
About Thomas C. Corley
I love these ideas. Dreaming of the future is a great start to getting wear you want to be in life.