Three Time Tested Approaches to Instilling Integrity and Self-Motivation
Integrity is the 4th core value that leads young athletes to develop self-motivation.
The age old saying is that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. This in effect makes integrity the essence of self-motivation. Just like you can’t force someone to have integrity, you can’t force someone to have self-motivation.
Given this, the process of instilling strong moral and ethical values in a child goes hand and hand with developing a child’s self-motivation. For many families, this starts with religion. For other families, it starts with the family’s reputation. Either way, a big part of developing integrity as a core value starts with setting standards.
Setting Standards Develops both Integrity and Self-Motivation
Whether through bible verses or family stories about grandparents and great grandparents, consistently telling vivid and memorable stories is transformational. What’s more, traditional stories like these help children set standards for themselves that serve as the foundation for their moral compass.
However, we all know that outside influences impact the worldview of a child often more than we would like. Therefore, parents must enhance these standards by putting their child in the right environment. So not only must parents set standards through their examples, standards must also come from the child’s friends, teammates, coaches, teachers and community.
To conclude, it almost goes without saying that much of this all is very obvious on the surface. So I don’t think there’s a need to belabor the point on these three time tested approaches to instilling integrity.
- Help your children understand why integrity is important through church and traditional family stories.
- Lead by example by living your life with integrity.
- Do your best to put your children in positive environments with adults and peers who act with integrity.