The future is exciting and also makes me nervous. I guess you could say that I’m nervited about the years ahead and how to prepare my kids for what’s coming. Figuring out how to get them ready for a Terminator-Matrix-Looper-Hunger-Games scenario is part of my process, sure. What they’ll do for work, what they’ll eat, with whom they’ll connect, and how they’ll bounce-back from failure are only some of the possibly more realistic things that I think about as a parent. Whether you’re a mom, dad, aunt, or human being who cares about the generations inheriting our planet, I imagine that you care about this stuff, too. This article will focus on three ways to futureproof our kids.
Every few months I’ll share three simple behaviours, mindsets and/or skills, like empathy or growing food, which will help you help your kid(s) to get inoculated against disruption, generational squeeze and, possibly, Terminators.
Build a work ethic
Our strengths come from a combination of natural ability combined with effort. A hard truth is that our kids can’t actually be anything they want to be – Chris Rock argues that “you can be something that you’re good at … if they’re hiring … and even then it helps to know somebody.” Marcus Buckingham suggests that applying a healthy work ethic to raw talent is how we uncover our strengths and unlock our potential, so explore simple tasks and activities that instill the value of working hard in your kids.
Try these things
- Make a habit of helping and expect your kids to clean up toys, make their bed and rake leaves
- Speaking of rakes, combine playing with working and get them a broom or cleaning set (the broom will help their curling career)
- Highlight and acknowledge effort because saying “you tried really hard” makes more of a positive impact than saying “you’re so smart”
Be curious
People with fixed mindsets are not curious. People in possession of a growth mindset always imagine possibilities and are interested in other ways of getting things done. In my experience, cultivating curiosity in children is easy because they are already ridiculously interested in everything. Robin Sharma believes that “adults are nothing more than deteriorated children”, so the real challenge for you is not to inspire curiosity in your tiny human, but to sustain it over time even when multiple choice quizzes and television try to stifle it.
Try these things
- Embrace the “five thousand whys” from your toddler and find peace in the knowledge that doing so will help inspire their deep exploration of themselves and the world
- Have simple, frequent experiences to all sorts of places, like coffee shops, bike stores and aquariums
- Introduce your kids to different people from different places because we all have different stories
Draw together
I attended TEDxStanleyPark last Saturday and one of the speakers was 11-year-old Jenny Zhou. She talked about drawing and how it should be taught more in school. For example, doodling while learning a topic enhances your likelihood of remembering the content by 30%. Drawing also enables better intercultural understanding because pictures are mostly universal. You or your child needn’t be awesome artists to make doodling fun and inspiring
Try these things
- Take an art class or visit a community art centre like ArtStarts in Vancouver
- Invest in art supplies and build in time for drawing and creating
- Take time to listen as your child describes how what appear to be oblongs and scribbles are actually a canoe navigating waterways en route to Ottawa; use phrases like “tell me more about your drawing because it’s really cool!”