To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:
Help her create an action plan that will harness the power of habits.
In his book Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results Stephen Guise explains how to harness the power of habits to achieve your goals, instead on relying on motivation or ambition.
Studies have shown that at least 45% of our daily activities are habitual. We don’t even have to think about them. When we are under stress, making decisions and taking on challenges becomes more difficult, so we revert to habitual behaviours even more. The bad news: not all of our habits are good! The good news: bad habits can be changed, just as good habits can be developed. It all comes down to creating new neural pathways – which become new habits – by achieving small, simple goals and repeating them consistently. Think of it like this: if you set yourself several easy goals every day, your chances of experiencing success several times a day are very high. The sense of satisfaction and control that you will feel are sure to ramp-up your willpower.
To help your child harness the power of habits, get her started with this action plan:
1) Establish a list of goals that you would like to achieve. Be sure they are reasonable and that you have a rational reason for wanting to achieve them.
2) Create a set of mini-habits to achieve those goals. Be sure they are simple and fail-proof.
3) Set yourself cues for performing your mini-habits. It should be something that reminds you that it’s time to perform your mini-habits, like a notification, or when you feel hungry, for example.
4) Keep track of your mini-habits. Putting them in writing will give you a sense of achievement and help keep you on track.