Teachers, Coaches and Parents – Teaching Your Students /Athletes/Children Happiness
In sports, at school and at home we teach lesson after lesson after lesson. Do we teach the lesson “be happy with what you have” enough? In geography they learn where New York is on a map and they can also learn about how lucky they are to have a school, a teacher and education to help them. In sports they can be taught a cartwheel and they can also be taught how fortunate they are having the gym, their coaches and parents who are willing to pay for all of this in time and money. Are we teaching the bigger lesson of “you are really lucky and have so much” lesson enough?
Part of feeling good about life is feeling happy and fortunate about what you have and the opportunities you have. Many, many kids under-appreciate what they have. OR the adults in their lives aren’t making sure they “hear” how fortunate they are enough. Maybe we aren’t showing them that others have far less enough. Maybe we aren’t stopping our busy lives to have them take a look around at all that they have? In my team athlete seminars this is an important topic I present and then discuss with them. It is important.
I think there would be less teen suicides if we taught happiness more. I think there would be less bad early relationships for teens if they weren’t “searching” so much for someone to make them happy. I think there would be less teen/parent confrontations if the kids didn’t take their parents for granted as much. I think kids would get better grades and work harder if they were happier about the educational opportunities rather than have the attitude “I hate school.”
Showing them, and reminding them often, what they have is important. Showing them others who don’t have what they have is an important lesson too. Many kids HAVE NO RIGHT to feel unhappy with what they have. Look in your closet. Look in your refrigerator. Turn on a light. Drink clean water. Feel warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Most children in schools and in sports programs need to get an attitude change about how fortunate they are.
The adults in their lives need to talk more about being fortunate and about being happy as much as hitting a baseball better or doing a bigger leap or perfect dive. Teach this one aspect of being happy in your lessons, at practices and at home. This will help these kids have a better, more realistic, attitude about the life they have at the moment. Goal – happier children who can deal with all of the other aspects of their lives.
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