Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

There are four steps to maximize the chance your child reaches his or her potential.

1) Identify your child’s talent

Children do their best when you empower them to do what their best at. So first, you must identify their talents. There are three proven ways to identify your child’s talents according to research from Gallup.

1. For children under the age of 10, use Strengths Spotting to observe your child’s talents by using the 4 categories of behavior clues.
2. For children ages 10-14, use Clifton’s Youth Strengths Explorer, an assessment to identify areas where your child’s greatest potential for building strengths exists
3. For children 15 and older, use Clifton’s Strengths Finder assessment.

2) Invest in your child’s talents

Talent is innate, and a strength is developed. If your child has a talent, this just means he or she has potential. Reaching this potential largely depends on how you invest in your child’s talents.

• What after school programs will you invest in?
• Will you use your weekends and vacations to provide enrichment activities that invest in your child’s talents?
• Can you provide your child with tutoring and/or private coaching to customize a program for them?

3) Develop their intrinsic motivation and passion

Investing in your child’s talents won’t guarantee success alone. Your child must also have the intrinsic motivation and passion to continue to invest in their talents without you.

Intrinsic motivation is the drive to complete an activity for only the satisfaction gained in doing the activity. This satisfaction is the result of fun or mental stimulation. In addition, this satisfaction comes in the absence of external pressure or reward.

One of the best ways to develop intrinsic motivation is to help your child become a fan of those who are already the best in the world at their talent. Take them to see the work products of the pros or to watch the pros perform on the biggest and best stages. In addition, find role models and mentors for them to admire, cheer for, and learn from.

4) Help them understand how and why to live life with purpose

Living a life with purpose is often the key to unlocking intrinsic motivation and passion. If you want your child to reach their potential, then somehow you have to help them value living with purpose. One way to do this is to model this value in your life. Do what I say, not what I do is a recipe for failure. So start with living your life with purpose, and use your life as an example to teach your child why purpose is important.