A few weeks ago I wrote an entry in which I wanted to remember a little how my childhood was and that of many children, when we were educated to obey, thus understanding adults that in this way we would be well educated children.
Following a bit with the issue of letting children be wrong, I want to talk today about the importance of leaving them freedom to live and freedom to choose and to live their own life, something that is key to prevent them from becoming mediocre adults.
The world is full of mediocre adults
I think I'm not discovering anything new when I say that today's world is full of mediocre people or, if not so much, people who are doing something they don't enjoy or who, if they could really choose, would be doing something very different.
We are many adults who, to the question of "Do you like your life, do you like your work?" We answer yes, we cannot complain (there is always someone who is worse, of course). However, we are also many who, to the question of "Is this the life you wanted to live, is this the work you wanted to do?", We answer that perhaps we would have preferred to lead another life, or that perhaps we would have chosen another job.
Few people respond that "I am working on what I wanted" and the consequence of this is that there are few people who have achieved excellence because he who does what he did not really want will never do the same as those who are dedicated to what they want.
Children have to be able to choose, to reach excellence
Only when a child can choose, only when he lives the life he wants to live can a child achieve excellence. The best way to be brilliant is to do the things that motivate you, that you like. Doing a job that does not motivate you or doing a job with the sole incentive to charge at the end of the month will make let's get away from excellence and get closer to mediocrity (According to the SAR, mediocre means "Medium quality" and "Little merit, pulling bad").
Each child comes to the world with some skills, with a potential, with some concerns. If you do not take advantage of them, if you do not use them, if you do not grow that potential, it is very likely that the child will become an unhappy adult, or at least not a complete one, not happy with his life, of those who feel a void , a longing, an adult of those who when they reach old age say that "if I could live again, I would do it differently".
Whenever I talk about this topic I give the example of my little brother. When finishing the institute, when all the family hoped that it did the selectivity to accede to a university (five older brothers who had done it endorsed the way), decided that He wanted to dance salsa.
My father almost had a stroke, my sisters "cornered" by looking at the crystal ball and anticipating more than seven hundred misfortunes, being the hundred and eight that he would probably starve to death before he reached thirty.
At that time he could have listened to the whole family (well, I told him that he supported his decision if it was what he liked) and live the life that the others wanted him to live, studying a career and working as a salary in whatever, being a mediocre one more, but he decided that "I get in here and I better not tell you where I get it".
He danced salsa, began to referee football matches (Referee? My father almost got another stroke) and became salsa champion in Spain three times. Being champion of Spain he came to travel to Oregon to participate in the world championship being in fifth position and since then both you can find it in any city of Catalonia as in Milan, where he also spends some season every year.
He now teaches dance and has several cups, medals and trophies at home that, had he made a career, he would never have achieved. Now of course, you can only say one thing: "Take it away, I dance it." My father is proud of him and it's the envy of the family because he did what he wanted, what he felt and what motivated him.
I see with sadness how some parents take control of their children's lives from birth until they are almost adults: “This yes, this no, this do it this way, this do it like that, pay attention to me, it is for your good, tell them that no, say yes, do not go with this friend, I do not like your girlfriend, if you go with that night you do not go out, etc. ”How will a child grow, how will he mature, if he lives the life we want that alive? How will you learn what is right and what is wrong if you can never make a mistake by deciding?
How will you achieve excellence, how will you achieve your maximum potential, if instead of doing what motivates you most, it does what motivates us the most.?
