So maybe your kid decided to quit. Maybe your kid isn’t as talented as you thought they were. Maybe your kid actually is talented but they just needed a break for a while. Maybe life just isn’t what you thought it could be. Well buck up, buttercup. Because interests change. People change. Raising a talented kid is tough (I guess, I never had kids), so let’s look at the big picture here and keep things in perspective…
Moving on to new things isn’t always a failure. We live in a world where things and people are constantly being reinvented. We discover new things. We hear new arguments. You live and learn, folks – you live and learn. Well, in this mercurial world of constant reinvention we should remain flexible.
A 2007 study in Psychological Science says that it’s often healthier to know when to cut your losses than to spend time beating a dead horse. But I guess it’s important to point out that you should know when a situation is hopeless or if you’re just being lazy. For the past 10 years I patiently waited for certain aspects of the upcoming Cea Serin album to be finished. I wanted to give up every year that it wasn’t ready. But I knew we had something and I wanted the fans to hear it.
That actually might not be a good example because all the time I spent worrying and stressing over the album I might have lost a fair amount of hair and caused irreparable damage to my health due to stress.
Hey, it’s done though, right? I’ll deal with the ulcers and muscle knots later.
The study I just mentioned above also says that teenagers that knew when to give up on an extremely unlikely goal had lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of harmful inflammation that can lead to diabetes and heart disease.
Listen, we shouldn’t expect every child to have a single-minded passion for one thing. Look at how adults handle their lives. How many times do people change careers? How many college students stick with the same Major that they had their freshman year?
Sometimes we change our minds and discover that the things we had an interest in just wasn’t what we expected. But I think that if your kid truly has a passion for something they’ll push through the difficult learning curve and all the tribulations that will arise through the thousands of hours of practice that it takes to eventually become great. Like I said before in the past postings, you should see yourself as a tour guide in their interests: Encourage and applaud their hard work, give them the best shot at success, be willing to put in your own time to help them enable themselves of their goals, and be aware of any oncoming burnout so you can help them over the difficult hurdles they’ll face on their way.
Man, I’m glad I don’t have kids. This sounds exhausting.
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This blog is sponsored by Real Simple magazine and by “My Kids Got Talent” by Jennifer King Lindley
If you haven’t checked out the new Cea Serin lyric video, please do so now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFy3iD_zF7k
Our new album will be available Oct. 6th
