Hey Kids: Here’s How To Never Fail

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It’s simple: If you try, you can never fail.

If you don’t get the outcome you want, you learn. We learn by making our own mistakes. No one can do that for us. Even though, as parents, we try. We want our kids to learn from our mistakes. We implore them to take our advice. I’ve learned it’s worth our effort, but kids often need to learn from their own mistakes.

Effort is the key. It requires no skill and you have control over it. You have a choice to put in your full effort, or not. If you don’t try your best, you can’t be your best. I like the 70/30 approach to making decisions.

List your target goals. What do you want? Identify the next best step toward what you want. From there make decisions with 70% assurance, leave 30% uncertainty for learning. Some of us don’t like to make a decision until we are 100% sure, but that’s not ideal - especially for kids.

Making your best guess is sometimes the best. We learn this skill on the mat, through trying new things and stretching ourselves physically and mentally. It comes with facing fears like going upside down, bending backwards or holding a pose to get stronger. It comes with reframing our outcomes whether we get what we want, or not because with effort, you can never fail.