Uncover Your Children’s Passions

Posted on December 15, 2014

In the cultural urgency of keeping our kids busy and thereby enrolling them in every ‘in’ activity and sport, how many of us parents actually stop to observe what our kids are really good at? How can we uncover our children’s passions?

Believe it or not, the three questions I asked myself when choosing activities for my kids were:

1. What’s healthy for them?

2. What will be the most fun?

3. How much will it cost?

All three are great questions…and important ones too. But imagine question #1 looking like this:

1. WHAT IS MY CHILD NATURALLY GOOD AT AND INTERESTED IN?

For some, the MEETING POINT of what they’re good at and what they’re passionate about shows up early on. However, that is not the case for the majority of kids. After all, how many of us ended up making a profession out of our passion? How happy would we be if we did?!

I realized what my passion was at age 43…Tools of Growth! I was practicing for it my whole life but I never knew it until my husband asked me a question that kept me up all night: “What do you LOVE doing? What can make you lose yourself? What do you enjoy so thoroughly where every molecule of your body get sucked into it and you forget the rest of the world? What can you do for 4 hours straight and feel happy and refreshed after it?”

Yes, it took that much soul searching for me! However, when I told my family and friends about Tools of Growth and what I was setting out to do, each one of them said, ”That’s perfect for you. You’re so good at it” or “That fits you perfectly”! How come no one told me that before? How come I, myself, never realized that? It made perfect sense to everyone around me but it took this long for it to crystallize!

I also then decided that I would start observing my own children so I could figure out what they loved to do and then proceed to help them nurture their passion. They may not make a profession out of it right away, but at least they can keep their passion alive by making it a hobby until they can weave it into their profession. This was the case with my daughter, Nitasha, and her passion for photography.

While she currently serves as the Lead Project Manager in Marketing and Business Development, Nitasha keeps her passion for photography very much alive. A chunk of her salary goes towards keeping her camera equipment up-to-date and she is always learning new things by keeping on top of all the new development in the world of photography. She knows that her passion and profession will intersect somehow, some where…soon! All the money us parents have spent on updating her cameras since she was 8 years old was definitely well worth it. Nitasha has created some unforgettable memories for herself and our family including a professional portfolio, vacation slide shows, grandparents’ birthday videos, a family website, photo libraries, and so on.

As parents, we are in an advantageous position to observe, take note, encourage and nurture our kids’ passions from the very beginning. There is such a thrill in watching your child excel at something they LOVE to do.

With this in mind, here’s a great way to pick their activities and classes:

1. Watch for what they love to do, what comes naturally to them AND what they’re good at.

2. Then help them develop it so they can be happy and excel!

3. Even if the costs are high, start with little investments in that direction. After all, you can never put a price tag on passion!

My mentor and favorite author, Wayne Dyer, said in a class that I attended, “Don’t die with the music still in you.” Nurturing our children’s natural gifts (their own personal music!) will make our kids happy. If they’re happy, they will think positive and do good, for themselves and for those around them. What is better than knowing that we as parents contributed in Raising our Kids to Be Happy, Think Positive and Do Good! ?

So when we ask our children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”…listen carefully. They might already know!