Did you know that Richard Dwyer (Founder & CEO) has been featured in Guildford’s Raring2Go magazine recently and your child may have received a copy in their school book bag. Richard is their resident confidence expert. Take a look at his latest interview…
Hello Richard, for parents whose child is working on building their confidence, what pointers can you give them?
“We are not born with high or low self confidence. It’s something that we all work on over time until it becomes a part of who we are. So for starters it’s OK if your child isn’t super confident yet. Being confident in ourselves is a really important life skill.I know it’s helped me throughout my childhood and into my TV and film career.”
RICHARD WITH ROBERT DOWNEY JR & JUDE LAW IN ‘SHERLOCK HOLMES’
“As a starting point for a less confident child, I encourage parents to discover what their child truly enjoys. This is sometimes what they are naturally good at or excel in, but not always. It may be a game they like or a musical instrument or a club or class at school.
When we are enjoying what we do, we usually feel confident in our abilities to be able to carry out that task or that thing.”
Are Goals important to becoming a confident child?
“Encourage EFFORT over RESULTS.
We hear it time and time again, it’s not about the destination, but about the journey and although GOALS and RESULTS are vital to a child’s development, when working on confidence it’s important we start with praising a child’s efforts and to NOT measure them against anyone but themselves. It’s their journey, not best friend Claire’s journey from down the road.
We get WAY too focused on RESULTS as adults and this is passed onto our children. We can easily get discouraged if we don’t achieve the goal/s we set for ourselves. BUT we forget how far we have truly come through the effort we put in. Rewarding EFFORT is a BIG confidence boost.”
REWARDING EFFORT IS A BIG CONFIDENCE BOOST
“Now goals are very important too. They help us in progressing through life and ultimately in getting really good at something. BUT it’s important that we celebrate every win, meaning that we celebrate the effort that we put into our tasks, be it at school, after school clubs and hobbies or how a child holds themselves and communicates with their friends and their interactions with other children, relatives and adults.”
So what really is confidence? And why is it so vital to a child’s personal development ?
“Confidence is a FEELING, it’s feedback to ourselves. It comes when you know that you CAN do something really, really, really well.
Confidence gives us mental permission to MOVE up and to the next levels in life. When you have self belief in your own abilities, you recognise that you can take on any challenge life throws at you.
It’s important that we learn how to WIN (achieving our goals). But equally how to lose or fail, to recognise that each time we don’t achieve what we set out to do, we learn from the failure or from our mistakes.
Get to know what your strengths and weaknesses are in life so that we can channel in on what we truly love.
Each time you praise and encourage a child, it gives your child a feeling of confidence and strength which grows with each piece of subsequent feedback.”
Were you a naturally confident child?
“No, as a child I used to get nervous about most things, from school to after school clubs. It was my Mum who taught me how to become truly confident through teaching me to STICK at something that I loved, to get really good at it and to embrace the good times and learn from the not so good times – my love was and still is gymnastics.”
RICHARD (ON FAR LEFT) WITH HIS FRIENDS AT HIS GYMNASTICS CLUB
“Club hopping is the quickest way to flatten a child’s confidence. Drifting from one activity to another makes them become a “Jack of all trades and a master of NONE.” Stickability is a TRUE confidence builder.”
If you would like your child to become more CONFIDENT through the sport of gymnastics, why not book them a Trial Class?
See you soon at club!
Sophie
The Parent’s Champion