3 Things For Your Child To Focus on in 2024
Two weeks.
That's what's left of 2023.
When we restarted Gosh! Kids after a 16-month hiatus, I thought I had control over my life and how things would turn out. Adjusting back to Singapore after living abroad shouldn't be that difficult of a task.
But it was, and still is.
The past eleven months have been one arduous journey, exacerbated for a first-time parent trying to keep a toddler alive.
I once read that people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can in ten. Of the many goals I set for myself this year, only a few boxes have been checked.
I probably overestimated one inch too far, I thought.
But a goal is pretty much a milestone—a psychological marker that signals some sort of progress.
Humans thirst on the dopamine of reaching a checkpoint, and knowing that we've crossed the line reminds us that we are not all that incapable, which brings me to something I believe in strongly:
Life is about making progress—no matter how insignificant it may seem.
Charlie Munger, the right-hand man of Warren Buffett, passed away two weeks ago. He said many things smart people would say, like how small things compound into large things: “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day, if you live long enough, like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
The same can be said about creativity as it can be for finance.
And since Gosh! Kids is in the business of creativity, I thought I share three aspects of life—individual, external, internal—kids should progressively get better at, regardless of the goals they set for themselves.
Get The Basics Right (Individual)
Mathieu and I wrote a letter to our son for his second birthday. It outlined ten things we hoped he would apply throughout his life.
One of it is, develop a keen awareness for the people around you:
I’m not asking you to look out for everyone. Rather, something as simple as saying “hello” to a stranger you’ve met for the first time, or a “thank you” when someone does something for you. Choose to put a “10” on every person’s head no matter how they treat you. Expect the best from others, and help them think more highly of themselves. This is by no means an easy task. You must consciously choose this every day. Remember, you are the bigger man.
Athletes at the highest level spend majority of their training to get the basics right. The intersection between performance and the rudimentary is so tightly intertwined that the highest levels of performance will require the deepest foundations in the simplest things.
Everything lives and breathes on the fundamentals.
Simple gestures—like saying hello or thank you—are often taken for granted.
Consider these:
Maintain eye contact
Being punctual
Adopt good posture
Embrace kindness
Offer a firm and confident handshake
Extend courtesy by holding doors
Instil the basics from a young age because everything lives and breathes on the sound foundation of a child’s behaviour and attitude.
Explore New Frontiers by Experiencing Novelty in Foreign Places (External)
Something I’ve long thought true, and which I’ve seen first-hand as an educator, is that children who were exposed to a sea of cultures and lived in different countries end up having a very diverse view of the world.
When the ability to absorb new information is highly-accelerated at a young age, it shapes the child at exponential rates, which develops other emotional and social tendencies.
Being exposed to a wide spectrum of cuisines, languages and cultures will, inevitably, widen the horizon of a child.
Creativity is said to be a bi-product of various aspects of the world that leads to unique solutions.
To possess aspects of the world, you must be knowledgeable about the world.
To be knowledgeable about the world, you must experience the world.
First-hand interaction with people of different nationalities will educate you ten times as much on empathy and communication and other life skills than a five-minute YouTube video or Netflix documentary.
Yet, you don’t necessarily have to live abroad for months or decades to absorb its effects—a short vacation in small successions will do the trick.
Novelist Haruki Murakami spent a substantial portion of his career abroad, only to return to the Land of the Rising Sun. “It’s kind of strange,” he writes, “I escaped from the Land of Japan, from the rigid framework of its society, and live abroad as an expatriate, only to find myself compelled to return to a relationship with that very land…to consider more deeply the meaning of my being as a Japanese writer.”
More than experiencing the world and gaining new experiences, being out there is a powerful way for children to make sense of their creativity and individuality.
Kids should aim to get a progressive understanding of the world by exploring new frontiers.
Truth is, the world ahead does not demand the same old way of doing things. “Getting out there” is the mandatory curriculum of global education we must provide for your kids so they can stand out in this ultra-competitive world.
Consider the following:
By experiencing different cultures, talents and cuisines, your child can understand what “excellence” truly means and aim higher in their own lives.
Exposure to the diversity of the world can help your child better understand their own strengths and value, while also developing empathy towards others.
Exploring the world can help your child become more self-aware and humble, as they gain a greater appreciation for their own privileges and shortcomings.
Book those air tickets now.
Take Control of Your Freedom To Learn By Reading (Internal)
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio once asked Elon Musk about his background in rocketry.
“I didn’t have one,” Musk said, “I just started reading books.”
While reading books on spaceships does not warrant you to launch rockets into orbit, the underlying principle is profound:
Your child’s journey in life is not determined (and restricted) by the institutions they attended or their grades, but is empowered by the freedom to take control of one’s knowledge and wisdom fueled by a lifestyle of reading.
Freedom!
This is a superpower—being in control of whatever you want to learn and whenever you want to learn.
Between the pages lie treasure troves of insights and information that are freely available to anyone with access to a public library or a computer with an internet connection.
This is why Mathieu and I frequent the library—borrowing stacks of books for ourselves and our son, ensuring those creative juices never stop flowing, which then gains traction in our line of work.
In one neurological study, researchers used brain scans to examine what happens inside people’s heads as they read fiction. Here’s what Psychological Science reported:
Readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences, mirroring those involved when people perform, imagine or observe similar real-world activities
In other words, when your child reads, they’re not in a passive state. The reader becomes the book. When they read, they undergo an intimate exchange with the author’s mind. It shapes them into someone new.
Paragraph by paragraph, book by book, kids must develop deep knowledge and wisdom.
No one, H.L. Mencken said, and no child, “gets anywhere in this world in any really and endurable manner without some recourse to books.”
For sure there are more things to focus on than these three, but they are, at its core, the basis of creativity.
It's been a tough but great year, and great things are always yet to come, and so is your child's creative potential.
I'm excited for what's ahead, with cool things lined up for 2024. I think you'll love them, and I think your friends will too. forward them this newsletter if you haven't, it would mean the world to me :)
Be well,
Miss G (@gladyssoh)
