Getting gritty
COEUR d'ALENE - Grit: The relentless pursuit of a challenge until it is mastered. Resilience: The capacity to recover from setbacks.
These two character traits are crucial to a young person's success in life, according to Joe Bohart.
Bohart, of Hayden Lake, will be presenting a free parenting Life Skills workshop, "Raising Children with Grit and Resilience," from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 17 to discuss these traits and how parents can encourage their children to be confident, determined and bounce back from their mistakes.
"With grit and resilience, kids can be successful in life because they'll pursue their goals relentlessly and they won't give up, no matter what stands in their way," Bohart said Friday.
The "grit" movement focuses on teaching kids how to find success in their failures and understand the benefits of their mistakes. Bohart, who has spent much of his career in leadership, training development, executive development, organizational development and coaching others, said tests which evaluate the characteristics of grit and resilience are reliable in predicting who will be successful in life. He said the "feeder" character traits of grit are self-control, willpower and taking ownership.
"We know that all three of those, when they're ingrained into a kid, if he has all three of those in his toolbag, he's going to be a gritty person," Bohart said.
The three-hour workshop will provide parents the strategies and tools to set up a framework of rules and regulations in their households which will empower their children and enable them to succeed. The information will be especially helpful for parents of kids ages 10-16, Bohart said, when the children are still developing their characters and senses of self.
"It's not just the presenter's opinion. We're talking about 20 years of research that show these things to be true," he said. "These attributes are very important for kids' success."
Register online at www.kroccda.org/lifeskills. For information, contact Bohart at 699-8900.