The key to your child's success in life

I often get parents coming to me saying “Sensei, I just cannot get my child motivated!”, “How do I motivate my child?” or “Can you motivate my child?”

I have to pause, smile, then tell them – Motivation does not work. Motivation does work . . . to get you started but it rarely can sustain you.

Let me give you an example. Say you want to get in better shape and loss some weight. It is the new year. You get excited. You go through your kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and clean out all the “bad” foods and replace them with healthy. You even buy some new “thin” clothes. You go on a pretty strict radical diet. You do great, for the first two months. You have resisted that pizza, ice cream or cake you love. But now your weight loss has plateaued and you even start to gain some weight back. Then one day you say “well, one piece of pizza will be okay”. You quickly gain all the weight back and slide back into your old eating habits.

So, it is not about motivation. It is about habits. “I know motivation is temporary, but habits are permanent!”

In this month’s “Ohana SEL+ Program” Lesson #5: Hard Work and Habits, we are going to give you and your child a secret to high achievement and success. It is the habit of forming intentional success habits along using the habit-forming tools of LINKINGand REWARDING.

Stay tuned for more on how you can help your child develop new success habits! Yours for stronger kids,

Sensei