Welcome FlowerChild

As we grow older all our experiences give us wisdom, knowledge and unfortunately also patterns with which it is safe for us to live and sometimes to survive. Our experiences then prevent us from living the life we deep down in our heart want, but do not dare to go for. Simply because our experiences made us insecure, scared, ashamed or guilty.

Young children are still free of these ‘negative’ experiences. They have the freedom to explore their unique core competence. We as parents and teachers, have a duty to observe our children objectively, so we can together discover, cherish and motivate their passions. Make sure they will not forget later in life what it is they do best and enjoy most without any effort. In that way we secure a happier next generation.

This little 6-year old girl from New Zealand has an amazing talent. And it must be great to know at a very young age what your strengths are and to be able to practice and develop your talents. There are not many young people who have the same opportunities. Often school, homework, parents’ wishes, TV, games, and other obligations drive children away from their first and inner passion. As a result later as adults they feel they do not lead a fulfilling live, they are dissatisfied and suffer from depressions or will finally get a burnout. To find out what the inner passion of a person is we need to change the school systems and make parents and teachers aware that it is not important how much children learn, but how they can find out what drives them from the inside. I hope that very soon there will be new systems installed that make our children people with strong inner desires.

In the Netherlands every year around 50.000 children between 12 and 16 years old drop out of school without returning. Some of them just stop school because they prefer to work, but a large group has very poor future chances and a potential risk to end up in criminal circuits. In many other countries there are similar dangers. The education for these children needs to be adapted. Outside school they are not supported and treated as a valuable individual with talents. Their only chance to have a happy future is school. Teachers for this group are not only teachers, but also mentors, psychologists and even a bit father and mother. These teachers need to be trained to become professionals who really care for this group. “Students are more likely to succeed when they feel connected to school” is also the conclusion of the experts. “Increasing the number of students connected to school is likely to impact critical accountability measures, such as: academic performance, incidents of fighting, bullying or vandalism, absenteeism [and] school completion rates.”

The teachers have the “golden key” in the battle against criminality!

This sounds a bit silly, but I do have a child who is completely stressed when she doesn’t understand something immediately. She is 6 years old and in her class they are calculating now until number 500. She is a very bright pupil and that is of course part of the problem. Not understanding something right away, makes her not want to go back to school at all. It took me years, or better decades, to be able to think positively even about failures and bad experiences. But how to explain this to a very stubborn six-year-old?

Maybe I’ll try these tips in the coming weeks:

1.     The key to optimism is to maximize your successes and minimize your failures.

2.     It’s beneficial to look honestly at your shortcomings so you can work on them, but focusing on your strengths can never hurt.

3.     Keep in mind that the more you practice challenging your thought patterns, the more automatic it’ll become. Don’t expect major changes in thinking right away, but do expect them to become ingrained over time.

4.     Always remember that virtually any failure can be a learning experience, and an important step toward your next success!

5.    Practice positive affirmations. They really work!

An important group of young people born between 1980 and 1990, the so called Millennials, have a bright outlook on the future, despite the crisis, increasing unemployment, risks for the environment and other worldwide problems. This was the result of a research done by the Pepsi Optimism Project. 2000 Americans were interviewed and practically all surveyed (95%) agree that it is important for them to maintain a positive outlook on life.

According to the POP survey, Millennials spend more time enjoying life than worrying about it and this group is most optimistic about their overall well-being and relationships with friends and family. Other findings include:

•  With the season of good will upon us, 74% find that supporting causes make them feel more optimistic.

•  Despite recent job forecasts, 77% of Millennials report having a strong sense of optimism about their careers.

•  Nearly all Millennials (95%) make positive associations when they think of the word “change,” associating it with “progress” (78%), “hope” (77%) and “excitement” (72%).

•  Two-thirds of Millennials (67%) say that the election of Barack Obama is making them feel optimistic about the future of the country.

This shows the real American Spirit in this next generation. Hopefully this positiveness will blow over to Europe as well.