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How many times have you looked into your child's eyes and said "I love you"?
How many times have you watched your child disappear behind those big school doors and thought to yourself, 'I hope they will survive the challenges that life has in store for them.'?
How many times have you cuddled your child to sleep, hoping he or she will have a happy and purposeful life lived to their full potential?
I am convinced the answer is an infinite amount of times! But, what gives us permission to make those choices that allow us to live life passionately or indifferently, purposefully or without direction, actively or inactively? What gives us permission to make the choices that allow us to experience happiness or sadness, face challenges or flee, grow or languish?
The answer lies in one powerful word: beliefs.
Empowering Beliefs Vs. Self-Limiting Beliefs
Our beliefs stem from ideas and opinions we have about ourselves, people, and the world that surrounds us. Those very beliefs are what we use to create our experiences and, therefore, they create our reality. Empowering beliefs help us live life happily, confidently, courageously, and compassionately while helping us with reaching our full potential. Self-limiting beliefs don't.
So how do we as parents arm our children with beliefs that actually empower them? But most importantly, how do we, first and foremost, spot self-limiting beliefs in our children before they grow too deeply into the subconscious mind and hold tight with clinging roots?
If you are looking to give your child the tools he or she needs to live a more empowered life, I have complied a list of 30 questions to ask your child that will:
•locate areas of self-limiting beliefs,
•give you the chance to weaken those self-limiting beliefs,
•replace them with empowering beliefs, and
•help you bond with your child.
30 Questions To Ask Your Child To Investigate Their Beliefs
1.Can you guess three things about you that makes mother proud?
2.If a genie in a bottle granted you three wishes, what would they be?
3.Which of your talents would you lend a friend for a day?
4.What can you do now that you couldn't do before? (e.g. You couldn't walk, but now you can run very fast!)
5.What five things are you grateful for in your life?
6.If you met an alien from Mars, what skills would you teach him?
7.If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? Why?
8.What skills will you have to work on to be good at that job?
9.What will you have to do to get that job?
10.What does it mean to be successful? Give examples of successful people you know of. (You can research with your child for more examples.)
11.What do all successful people have in common? (This is a chance to show your child how important it is to research things they aren't sure of).
12.Aside from your grades, what else is equally important to be successful?
13.Which child from your class could be a future President? Why?
14.What are you most passionate about?
15.How could you turn your passion into a living?
16.Can you find examples of people who turned their passion into a living? (with your support, you child is finding new evidence that weakens any self-limiting beliefs in order to support a new empowering belief.)
17.What kind of character must a footballer have to eventually score a goal? (your child realizes that determination and resilience are important to get what you want in life.)
18.Can a footballer score a goal without any help? Why? (your child realizes cooperation with others is important.)
19.Should people leave their jobs if it doesn't make them happy?
20.Can money always buy you happiness? Why?
21.If you woke up the next morning and you were 20 years older (an adult), what would your life look like? (the answer will project how he or she currently sees themselves.)
22.If you were President for the day, what would you change in the world? Why?
23.Do you think people are automatically good or automatically bad at something?
24.Have you always been good at the things you can do now, e.g. football, swimming, dancing, reading? (your child realizes that they have the ability to learn new skills and get better at it. They have done it before and can do it again.)
25.What does it mean to fail at something?
26.What can you learn from failure?
27.Is it okay to fail at something? Why?
28.What would you tell a friend who failed at something they tried to do?
29.If there was a zombie attack at your school, name three classmates who would survive? Why?
30.If you could be any dish in the world, what would you be? Why?
How would you like to take a walk into your child's mind, dig out those weeds, and be given the chance to plant seeds of confidence, courage, compassion, and resilience? Asking your child these questions will help you do exactly that and more. Which questions are your favourite and gave the best results? I would love to read your comments!