Write It, Live It
We all aim to have well-rounded kids who possess vision and purpose. While all children have varying levels of strengths, talents and interests, what’s most important is that they discover what their passion is. The most effective way we can help them with this is by having them write their own life story—ahead of time. By considering interests to be the same as a theme in a book, children are able to construct a plot that will allow them to achieve their dreams. Here is an exercise that can be done with children eight-years-old and above:
- Have them sit comfortably with their eyes closed, and take several deep breaths. Continue until they are completely relaxed. Tell them to just listen to the sound of your voice.
- Guide them through a visualization exercise by using the script below. However, they will create their own image: in no way should you describe the event.
- Say, “Imagine that you are sitting in a room, watching TV. On the screen you see yourself doing something that you love to do; something that makes you very happy. You notice that what you are doing is also making people happy. Now feel how excited this makes you.”
- When they are able to ‘see’ this image (and it make take more than one round of this exercise), have them explain in detail what he or she visualized. This is their theme.
- Encourage them to write this down, or help them take notes.
- The next part entails working backwards—from adulthood to present day. For example, a child who envisions helping animals as veterinarian might visualize the following: performing surgery on a dog as an adult, graduating from medical school, graduating from college, graduating from high school, graduating from elementary school, and finally, currently attending elementary classes.
With help from you or a trusted family friend or teacher, working backwards allows your child to construct the plot or story line and iron out all of the details necessary to complete each stage successfully. Through discussion and gentle prompting, they will realize that everything is a process; that many things they want will take several years and/or steps to achieve.
When my own students discovered their theme, they became self-reliant, self-sufficient and their self-esteem improved greatly. They were in possession of their own destiny.
One of my seventh graders discovered his passion for cooking. I said to him, “Eliot, I am going to tell you something that no teacher ever will. You don't even need to go to high school to be a chef— but if you want to be a great chef, then you need to attend a culinary school.” I then told him how my son Antony got a job washing dishes a few hours a week when he was 12. A couple of days later, Eliot informed me that he had a part-time job, with his parents’ permission, washing dishes in a restaurant. He was already on his path to becoming a chef.
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Dr. Anthony Raimondo is the author of “Return to Eden.”
