The Power of the Upward Spiral: Building Confidence Through Positive Habits
The sole purpose of this community is to empower you as parents in the creation and direction of the First Habits that your children develop. The importance of these First Habits cannot be overstated. The reality of our children’s (and our own) lives is that a slight shift in perspective, mentality or physical movement in the early years, when compounded over the entirety of a childhood, will have a huge impact – positive or negative – on their overall success and happiness in adolescence and adulthood.
Take a look at our logo. Do you see the upward spiral? Many of the concepts that we discuss will be framed in the context of that spiral. If your child has the proper base level habits and abilities, challenging tasks become less difficult. As a result, they will grow in confidence and further test skills, leading to further positive outcomes and confidence. The same is true on the negative side. Without some level of positive belief in their abilities, your child may lack the confidence to try to break out of the cycle, and therefore the downward cycle perpetuates. The old phrase “use it or lose it” is really on the mark in this instance. We either challenge ourselves and get better and build ability, or we give up and whatever skill or ability we had atrophies. By focusing on the most common childhood habits, parents will be able to guide their child’s development in a much more focused and efficient way.
Building the Foundation: The Impact of First Habits on Future Success
Our goal is to make you aware as parents that there are significant ways to influence the future success and happiness of your children by nudging their behavior in very small ways during crucial development phases. You will help craft their First Habits, which will then compound throughout their life. If you can develop a positive and self-reinforcing habit starting early on and before a negative habit has time to take root, the chances are high that your children are going to be in a better position than another child who wasn’t taught that habit the right way the first time. Behaviors that last a lifetime often begin with a First Habit. Think about how hard it is to break a bad habit as an adult! There are endless self-help books dedicated to that topic and even a 20% win rate in breaking a bad habit as an adult is immensely positive. But what would happen if those bad habits for crucial areas like reading, breathing and emotional regulation never developed? What would the impact over many years if instead, a bad habit never took root and the First Habit you developed was the most optimized version?
Now there are thousands and thousands of possible habits and skills that our children need to develop during their early years. At First Habits, we are going to be exclusively focused on the highest impact habits.
- For mental ability think reading, memorization and mental models
- For physical performance / health it’s breathing, balance, recovery and focus
- For emotional well-being we’ll focus on mindfulness, growth mindset and visualization
Unlocking Potential: Nurturing First Habits for a Brighter Future
We’re all busy. We know parents today have so much going on. By the time you address you and your child’s basic needs, activities, schoolwork, social commitments and everything in between, today’s parents often feel like there is not a minute of space in their days. But that is exactly why these fundamentals are so important. At First Habits, we focus on providing you the parenting skills training that you need to become successful in guiding your child’s development. With tweaks to your children’s First Habits delivered at the appropriate time, we are confident that your children will not only be better prepared for the challenges they will face in their lives, but it will also save you time by not having to break poor habits or work against the grain to get them out of a downward spiral. So let’s focus up and start on this journey together to ensure that our children are equipped with the First Habits that will allow them to be happy, healthy and achieve their goals throughout life!
