A Sense of Purpose: Another Positive Identity Asset-Asset 39

A Sense of Purpose: Another Positive Identity Asset

To invest in this positive identity asset, parents and other adults in a child’s life feel and show that their lives have purpose. Children are curious and interested in exploring the world around them. As they grow, they feel that their life too has purpose and they actively engage the world with their unique gifts and skills to fulfill their purpose.

Parents and adults should get in touch with what is important to them and then share this with the children in their life. For instance, you could do this by saying to children, “I walk every day to stay healthy. Walking makes me feel great and I keep doing it because one of these days I want to take a hiking trip through the mountains.”

If you are living your dream or have met some important goals, share your stories about the process from having the dream to making it come true. You could also examine or create a list of dreams or goals and share one with your child. Say you want to learn to fly fish or remodel your kitchen. Let your child be in on the process and observe or even help you follow through on making that goal a reality.

You inspire hope by being hopeful, and you inspire interests by being interested. Let your children see that you are enthusiastic about life. Talk about your feelings and what excited and inspires you. Plan with your child and show them how to make their dreams come true.

You can start early in a child’s life planting the seeds of a purposeful life. Make sure infants and toddlers can make choices about toys to play with or interests they have. When they show an interest, give them opportunities to explore that interest. If a child shows an interest in music, make musical toys and instruments available to them. If the child likes to put things together, get them building blocks, Legos, or Lincoln Logs.

Keep your child’s life interesting and stimulating. Find ways to include your children in things that you enjoy too. If a child is asking a lot of questions about something, take time to pay attention to them and give them honest answers to their questions. If you don’t know an answer, tell them you will find out for them or include them in your quest to learn the answer. This will tell them that their interests and purposes are important to you and therefore important to them also.

Create an atmosphere where children feel free to explore and discover. Some towns have centers just for this purpose. The local library is always such a place. Here in Helena we have the Exploration Works Interactive Museum. Most large cities have similar environments dedicated to a child’s need to explore and discover.

For older children, encourage and help your child set up an interview with an adult role model that they admire in your community. Help them develop a list of questions to ask based on their own desire to know the person.

So there are a few ideas. If you want more, contact me. Remember, there is no greater success than to have meaningful work and a purpose for living.