How Can I Teach My Child to Live Life to the Full?

By a Parent.

I have spent many years trying to develop my inner self. It has not been easy. Overcoming my fears, inhibitions and inertia was difficult, but the effort has been worth it and I believe I am developing myself to live my life to its full potential.

But how can I teach my child to live life to the full?

The search for self-improvement is full of self-doubt. I have spent years exploring many avenues and techniques, not all lead to anywhere meaningful. However, some things I learnt have helped me enormously. But I’m not confident that I have found the right answers. Other people I know have found great benefit from techniques and practices that were of no help to me. Likewise, what I find beneficial, others may not.

Meeting and falling in love with my wife was the best thing that has ever happened to me. The birth of our daughter brought us great joy. But as we settled into parenting, I became more and more worried about my ability to teach my daughter about the right approach to live life.  I didn’t want her to spend years, in later life, searching, as I had done, for answers as to how best to live life. I didn’t want her life constrained like so many people’s lives are today.

I had so many questions about the correct ‘life coaching plan’ I should use. How old should she be before I began teaching her techniques that I had learnt? What approach should I take? And were the techniques and practices I had learnt suitable for her? Did I have the ability to teach others?

It was my wife who provided the answer. Actually, we had a row. I was fretting, as usual, about our daughter, when my wife screamed at me to ‘give it a rest!’ When I retorted that I only wanted to help our child, she replied that it was me who wanted help and that our daughter needed no help at all. In fact, she said, if I continued like this, one thing was certain: our daughter would certainly spend many years as an adult, trying to sort out her life.

She was right of course. From that point on, I began to really observe my child and I began to realize that she had ‘no issues’ to sort out, no inhibitions, inertia, or self-doubt. She’s a dynamo, who is constantly exploring the world around her. She’s always herself; she’s in touch with her real, inner self.

I have nothing to teach her. Sure, I can teach her to cross the road, walk downstairs holding the handrail and how to ride a bicycle. But I have nothing to teach her on how to live life. She’s doing it all by herself. She’s my teacher, and a good one at that.