“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou
“One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mum and dad.” – Jim DeMint
“Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth.” – Virginia Satir
Acknowledging parents and sharing good parenting skills, I believe, is the same as acknowledging and sharing good business culture building skills. I share my golden rules that I learnt as a parent here.
Scientific evidence proves that a child recognizes sounds of parents in the womb, often cautioning to be careful with what you say around pregnant women. Parental values affect and get imbibed that early in infancy. Children learn from what they hear, feel and see, internalizing our behavior, emotions and motives for future use. It thus becomes imperative for parents as role models to display those values they wish their child should acquire – as feeding the mind and soul good things shapes a better human being.
A child is like clay and modeling it is in the hands of the parents. The values inculcated during the formative years of childhood bears fruit when your baby walks out in the world. How well your prodigy survives independently can be your success in raising him/her as a parent. The more I study and speak with women around the world the more it is evident that it is the environment that we grow up in that shapes us as adults. When I say environment I specifically say it is the culture that we grow up in that shapes us as adults.I really never appreciated my parents until I became one…. Forty years after becoming a parent I now have the time to reflect not only what I learnt from being a parent, also I have been able to reflect on how my parenting skills have shaped my life and my business life. It gradually dawned on me that bringing up children requires many sleepless nights, selfless care, unconditional love and total dedication to provide a healthy environment for holistic growth of all of us, not only our children.When I look back it seems like it was much easier for us to bring up our children compared to now. Even though we ran three businesses and a farm, as we didn’t have the interference of social media, the advice and conversation through radio and TV and the general pressure and self-comparing that is not only affecting parenting, it is shaping our family cultures that I believe will shape our future business cultures.
The “me me me” and “the world owes me a favour” attitude can only isolate people more than they are now, increasing the suicide and drug usage and the need of connection more than ever in human history.
There seems to be an attitude of getting as much as you can from everyone and every situation, making a sales pitch of everything to everyone rather than enjoy the situation. The keeping up with the Joneses Syndrome takes away from our minds creativity that leads to innovation. Innovation is key to business success and personal fulfillment.
People will most certainly require strong interpersonal skills to collaborate with others and share personal truths to build bonds of friendship in social, family and working life. Women will want to create their clear visions to keep them on their personal, values based, life path, you can read my free e book with this link. Professionally they will need to value the importance of hard work, tenacity and focus to achieve their dreams.
Our soul is a gold mine and if fully fed can create wonders for humanity… we must be mindful of what we are doing as parents, as business owners, as adults and role models.
What are your comments as to how you feed your soul and mind in this distracting world we live in and how are you creating your culture for innovation in your family and business life?
Hugs Di Downie
