Rule of thumb: Everybody experiences failure at some point in their life. Abraham Lincoln lost 7 elections before he finally won the election to become president. Thankfully, he never dwelled on those failures but rather used them to fuel himself to the top and become the most important man in the world. The important part in teaching kids about dealing with simple mistakes is to avoid dwelling on what went wrong.
For example, if they lose their soccer game, try not to not get upset over it, or let them dwell on it. It is part of life, so try to use the loss as a stepping stone to teach them what they can do to get better. Let the loss be a motivator for them to become a better soccer player. These mistakes are great opportunities to learn from and it’s important that they understand losses are OK. They just need to pick themselves up, brush off, and get ready for the next game. Eventually, as they continue to learn what from each and every mistake, these losses will turn into a positive and they will not only become better soccer players, but also be better equipped for life.
Failure is never final. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” As you can see even the brightest of people experience failure. Thankfully Benjamin Franklin never stopped when he experienced failure. He persevered and never gave up which is exactly what kids need to learn to do. Teach the attitude of Benjamin Franklin and find the positive in each mistake.
Letting kids be hard on themselves will only make it worse. If they take 100 shots on goal and miss all 100 of them, encourage them to shoot again. The number rule in coping with failure is: NEVER ALLOW FAILURE TO GET IN YOUR WAY OF SUCCEEDING. This comes back to the simple fact that failure is never final. Failure is easy to overcome it just takes time and hard work.
