Six years ago, Renée and I were living in San Francisco.
I had just closed a round of funding for Clarity.fm while Renée had just co-founded a new marketing agency of her own.
Things were crazy. But they were about to get crazier 😉
Turns out Renée was pregnant with our first son, Max… and it took a whole 3-months after Max was born for Noah to sneak into the picture.
Add it all up and our two boys are just 11-months apart.
Talk about a massive life change.
But through all the massive shifts, the ONE thing that became most important to me was to make sure, that even from such young ages, our kids would be primed for a life of continued growth.
This obsession led to a deep dive into all the latest research and findings from mindset specialists, performance coaches, sports psychologists, and parenting experts.
After six years of implementing, testing, and iterating within our own family, here are the five biggest keys we’ve discovered to raising growth-minded children.
WATCH: The Integrated Life – Can entrepreneurship and family really co-exist? I believe it can.
While not a definitive ‘be all and end all”… the following five practices have proven to be tremendously powerful (and rewarding) in helping my boys grow up with a growth mindset:
- Meditate
- Teach a growth mindset
- Encourage the effort
- Recognize the journey
- Make the words matter
One of the simplest but most powerful secrets for cultivating and sustaining a growth mindset is the art of recognizing the journey.
Credit goes to my good friend, performance coach, (and father of three,) Todd Herman.
Intense challenges and frequent setbacks are essentially a prerequisite for growth, and one of the best ways to build resilience and motivation is to frequently remind your kids to look back and appreciate how much ground they’ve already covered.
This is true whether they’re learning how to ride a bike for the first time — or building their first startup in your basement 😉
One of the coolest “side effects” of implementing these practices with your kids, is that they have a residual effect on your own growth mindset.
Few things are more rewarding in life than growing alongside your family.
Watch the full episode to learn the four other practices that have become a core part of our day-to-day family life … and then leave a comment letting me know which ones you plan to integrate with your own kids.
