Up For The Challenge

Yesterday, I was in the car with my oldest daughter after soccer practice. As we made our venture home, she shared with me the details from practice, per usual. For this practice, I happened to be there to watch the last 30 minutes, where they scrimmaged the boys team. I patiently waited for her to tell me all the details of practice and just like with any conversation, she usually leans into me for my advice. When the time was right, I offered my opinion. One of them being something that I thought she needed to try to do more in her practices and something to try in the games. Her response to the challenge was, “What if it doesn’t work?” So, my natural cliché response was, “What if it does work?” I know, super creative. My response was approached by silence, so that told me everything I needed to know about how she felt with my response. So, I turned the music off and coincidently enough we had come to one of Georgia’s longest red lights, so we had time. Here was my chance to really drive home the message.  “Jordan, do you know how far you have come as a student, a daughter, an athlete and a friend all because you tried to do things that were new to you? Imagine if everything that was presented to you that was new or made you uncomfortable, you decided to not do it? Imagine all the creativity that exists in the world all because people took the chance on themselves, despite never doing it before. Many of the businesses you see around us are because someone decided to go for it. They decided to take a chance of themselves. That maybe the thing they weren’t so good at, they would learn to get better and better at, just by simply doing it. Imagine the world, better yet, imagine yourself never doing anything because you were afraid that it might not work.” Again, silence. But I knew that this silence was my 9-year-old processing everything that Daddy was saying and letting it all soak in. I knew that the silence meant that she was up for the challenge, not for her dad, but for herself. The silence meant, “I’m going to do it!” The silence also meant, “K dad, got it.” So, I stopped. Lol.

Our children, much like us and maybe even more so, can sometimes be afraid to try. To them the world is a lot smaller than they know. They see their small circle of friends and family. They get soaked into the basic daily routines. There is so much that they don’t see, just by being… a child. And honestly, who wants to fail at any of that? Or be embarrassed, especially at 9 years old. So that is where we step in. To put our hand on their backs, and silently say, “you got this”. To provide the advice that means a little something more because it’s you. We know the confidence game. We’ve experienced it enough. It can be a moving target for a lot of adults, let alone our children. So just think of how important it is to have someone to be there every time the target moves, to help you confidently aim again? That person can be you. Well, if you are up for that challenge.

“Accept the challenges, so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.”