This next question here is: How do we build confidence in our small children?
Interestingly enough, it's their safety with you to be exploratory.
I read a study a while back, and it was something that was just kind of interesting to me.
It showed that younger children are curious and ask questions, but because of the environment, they stop asking so many questions.
What we want to do as parents is encourage curiosity.
That’s one way to put it—we encourage curiosity.
If we do that, then we’re encouraging them to ask questions.
Sometimes it's even our role modeling or role-playing with them—how to have a conversation or how to do something—building them up in a real way.
Carol Dweck wrote a wonderful book called Mindset.
It introduces the concept of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.
A growth mindset focuses on effort: "You're working hard, and it’s showing."
That’s a powerful thing.
When I say to someone, “You worked hard, you achieved this,” what I’m essentially saying is, “You did good work.” That’s really valuable.
In that situation, we’re teaching our child that through hard work, we get positive outcomes.
Contrast that with a fixed mindset: “I guess I’m not smart enough,” or “I didn’t do this well.”
We’re trying to teach our children: If you work hard, you will get positive outcomes.
That’s a very valuable lesson.
So, fixed mindset vs. growth mindset—we want to teach a growth mindset.
Through hard work, we get positive outcomes.
A fixed mindset sounds like, “Oh man, you’re just not smart enough,” or “I just can’t do this.”
That’s the kind of language of a fixed mindset.
We want to teach our child a growth mindset:
“When you do hard things, good things happen.”
We teach them resiliency, how to do difficult things—and usually that’s the better path.
