6 Traits That Help Kids Succeed
Want to cultivate the traits your child needs to succeed in school and as an adult? Teach these 6 traits that can help kids succeed.
Encouraging success in kids seems to get a bad rap. We’ve got Tiger Moms who don’t accept anything less than an A, or parents pressuring them to succeed at all costs. Kids can’t cope with losing, and admissions tests are given at the preschool level.
But when we look at how to help kids succeed in a different way, we see it’s not always competition and stress. Success is tapping into their potential and drawing out the traits they already have.
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I read the book The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone, about how and why adults succeed. One of the chapters highlighted traits we’d need to do so.
As I read through them, I realized many of them can apply to children. If we teach these now, we can help them succeed from an early start. Below are six traits that help kids succeed, even at an early age:
Table of Contents
1. Thrives with challenges
Kids who face challenges with a can-do attitude are bound to succeed. They’re the ones who don’t see challenges as obstacles or reasons to give up. Instead, they look for solutions and believe they can reach their goals, all with optimism.
How can you encourage this trait with your child? Phrase challenges and difficulties as a positive thing.
If she’s stumped on homework assignments, say, “Awesome—your brain is working hard!” If she breezes through an easy puzzle, apologize and say, “I’m sorry that was too easy. Tomorrow we can find you a more challenging one.”
And the most important thing? Don’t avoid challenges yourself. Instead, acknowledge its difficulty and face it head on. She might see your eagerness to solve a problem with a positive attitude.
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2. Stays disciplined
We often talk about discipline as a way of teaching behavior to our kids. But another kind of discipline is the ability to stick through tasks, no matter how difficult. Kids need the self-control and resilience to do what it takes to reach their goals.
Start a reading habit on a daily basis, or encourage your child to do a good job on her homework instead of accepting halfhearted work. Maybe it’s trudging up to tennis practice every day in the heat of the summer or not giving up the music program during the school year.
Being disciplined helps her understand that success comes with effort and “showing up.” You don’t get somewhere by chance or luck—you put in the hard work and then see the results.
Learn how to raise hard working kids.
3. Sees the positive side of mistakes
Kids who learn to embrace mistakes can succeed in the long run. They understand that they offer valuable lessons they otherwise wouldn’t have learned. And they don’t tie their worth with mistakes and instead see them as events that happen to everyone.
Making mistakes and losing won’t feel good, no doubt. No one likes to lose a game or feel stumped when their building structures keep falling. Your child shouldn’t feel optimistic all the time or feel rushed out of her sadness or disappointment.
But encourage her to embrace mistakes and not let them stop her. Maybe she needs to find a new strategy to stack those blocks or play a game a few more times to get familiar with it. Mistakes shouldn’t stop her from pursuing her goals.
Learn the importance of embracing mistakes.
4. Keeps going
It’s easy for us to see successful people in the limelight and assume they’re talented or have an upper hand. And sometimes they do have a knack for success or luck was on their side. But what most people don’t see are the many obstacles they’ve had to go through.
Kids are some of the most resilient and persistent among us. Think about the baby learning to walk despite a zillion falls, bumps, and scrapes. Or the preschooler who wants to swing through those monkey bars until he can go from one end to the other.
It’s not so much talent as it is effort. Teach your child persistence and grit to prepare him for the challenges he might face. That way, he can bounce back and try again.
5. Takes risks
If my kids were standing high on a playground structure, I’d bellow, “Be careful! Don’t go there!” If they reached for a workbook I thought too difficult, I’d say, “That’s too hard. Let’s do this one instead.”
Now I realize that risk-taking is important for kids to succeed. Protecting them from everything is impossible and doesn’t do them any good. Rather than shouting “Be careful!” I now trust them and offer useful feedback like, “Place your foot on this bar.”
Allow your child to take risks, no matter how small. Maybe it’s putting on his own shoes or baking a dish on his own with minimal help. Taking risks allows him to learn new things and assess for himself whether to keep going or not.
6. Continues to learn
Maybe you’re seeing a pattern with these traits: It’s all about continuing. When faced with a challenge, keep going. When you’re too comfortable, take risks. And when you feel like you’re at the top, continue to learn.
Kids are wired to learn, right from birth. Hone that skill by encouraging your child to keep learning.
Learning never stops, after all. Even the highest achievers have something to learn. Learning is also humbling and reminds her that she isn’t above others.
A few ways to keep her learning include:
- Taking her on field trips like museums and nature spots.
- Point out simple wonders like the patterns on a leaf.
- Including her in household tasks like cooking.
- Making her responsible for packing a snack or school supplies in her backpack.
- Encouraging learning, even in the summer or school breaks.
- Reading every day, especially about topics she loves.
- Making sure she gets enough sleep.
Conclusion
The desire to help kids succeed doesn’t mean you’re focused on perfection or that you’re pushing them to the brink. Instead, you’re teaching them the traits they’ll likely need to pursue their interests. Things like encouraging hard work, not giving up, and facing challenges head on.
No matter their passion, help them succeed now and into adulthood—all by nurturing the traits to help them do so.
Get more tips:
- How to Prepare Your Child for College (Even at a Young Age!)
- 5 Characteristics of a Resilient Child
- How to Raise a Bright Child
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