Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

I’m a firm believer that if you push a child too hard, you will push them away. The only exception to this is when the child wants you to push them for a purpose. This is why purpose is the #1 core value that leads children to develop self-motivation.

Furthermore, I’m excited to announce that I am now facilitating an ongoing series of parent / child peer groups focused on purpose with sports families around the country.

The fact is that youth and young adults who wake up each day knowing their purpose have a huge advantage over those who don’t.

PURPOSEFUL YOUTH

• Youth with a sense of purpose perform better academically
• Purpose-minded youth are more health conscious and have higher self-esteem
• Purposeful youth strive to have a positive impact on themselves and the world around them
• Youth with a sense of purpose are better equipped to devise creative strategies for overcoming challenges.
• Purposeful youth are committed to other core values including humility, gratitude, and integrity
• Purpose-minded youth are more enthusiastic about their interests and focused on the broader implications of their efforts

NON-PURPOSEFUL YOUTH

• Non-purposeful youth are more focused on short-term rather than long-term goals
• Research has shown that the personal effects of purposelessness include self-absorption, depression, addictions, psycho-somatic ailments
• When young people find nothing to dedicate themselves to while growing up, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to acquire motivating belief systems later in life.
• Non-purposeful youth are significantly less likely to be open, vital, or committed to core values
• The social effects of purposelessness can cause deviant and destructive behavior, a lack of productivity, and an inability to sustain stable interpersonal relations.

Sources:
The Development of Purpose During Adolescence
William Damon, Jenni Menon, and Kendall Cotton Bronk
Exploring the Nature and Development of Purpose in Youth
Stanford University
Portraits of Purpose: A study examining the ways a sense of purpose contributes to positive youth development
Kendall Cotton Bronk

How We Help Sports Kids Find Their Purpose

If you are like me, you have big dreams for your children. You believe the sky is the limit. Dream big, work hard, bounce back from failure, and keep pursuing bigger goals. This is how all sports parents think. The only thing that can hold your child back is their motivation to keep going as goals get progressively harder as they get older.

Finding purpose in their goals is the fuel to keep them going. The way we do this is threefold:

1) Explore Strengths

Your children are at their best when they’re doing what they’re best at, and that’s using their strengths. Strengths are found in what you truly love to do, your areas of natural talents.

2) Identify the Passions that Drives Innate Self-Motivation

Once strengths are explored, the next step is to identify the passions and motivations that are innate or come effortlessly.

• What activities or environments is your child repeatedly drawn to or eager to try?
• What new skills or activities does your child pick up quickly and easily?
• When is your child most enthusiastic and fulfilled?
• Which activities is he or she excited about doing again and again?
• When does your child become so engrossed that he or she seems to lose track of time?

3) Define the Vision, Goals and Action Items

In this final step we help you put pen to paper and map out a concrete plan for both you and your child.

1. What’s the dream? Not some pie in the sky dream. A measurable, time-bound dream that you and your child can work to achieve by checking off action items.
2. What are the non-sports dreams? The fact is that athletic careers are by nature temporary. For this reason you must plan for what will be next. Is it coaching, sports psychology, business, teaching, physical therapy, or something else?
3. What’s your plan for bouncing back from failure? Failure is part of the process. Therefore, you must face failure head on. If you know failure is going to happen, then it’s irresponsible not to plan for it

Find Out More By Attending an Information Session

To find out more about participating in a parent / child peer group to go through this process with me and other sports families please attend a free information session. Contact me here to get notified of our next session.