Prime Family Alert!: Message Blockers: Why Your Children Don’t Get Your Messages
Have you noticed that sometimes your children just need to hear a message once and they get it? And, frustratingly, you can send a message dozens upon dozens of times and it is as if they had never sent the message at all? Well, welcome to the real world of parenting where nothing goes as expected, what is supposed to work doesn't, what isn't assumed to work does, and what does work only works intermittently or only works for a limited time. It takes detective work and a real understanding of your children to figure out why some messages get through easily and others, despite your best efforts, don't seem to get through at all. Even if you understand the messages you want to communicate to your children, even if you know which conduits through which those messages are conveyed, and even if you have strategies by which to send those healthy messages, you can’t be sure that those messages will get through. Every time you send a message to your children, it will likely have to navigate its way through a maze of “message blockers” that can deflect, weaken, contaminate, or outright destroy your intended messages to your children. If you can understand these message blockers, you can lessen their impact and increase the chances that your messages will make it into your children’s psyches.
Read MoreSki Racing: Set Your Ski Racer’s “Defaults” Early
For you to send the healthiest possible messages to your young racers requires that you fully buy into my notion that children become the messages they get the most. Though it seems to be a pretty intuitive and reasonable concept, I feel the need to thoroughly convince you of the profound value of messages to your […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Build Prime Confidence: Part I
Last season I wrote two articles in which I discussed the importance of confidence and five keys to Prime Confidence. With the new season approaching and this issue no less important, I want to return to the topic of confidence and devote my next two articles directed at racers to more practical ways you can […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Your Children are Listening
Note: This post is excerpted from my latest parenting book, Your Children are Listening: Nine Messages They Need to Hear from You. I have a Ph.D. in Psychology, am the author of two previous parenting books, have a consulting practice that involves working with young people and their parents, and regularly speak to gatherings of parents, educators, and […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Racers: Last Year in Review
Hopefully, you heeded my advice from my second to last column at the end of last season and spent the summer getting ready for this winter of racing. If so, you should be stronger, better technically, and more mentally prepared than ever before. You’re now entering the final stage of preparations for the upcoming race […]
Read MoreParenting: Five Rules: So Your Children Get Your Messages Loud and Clear
Note: This post is excerpted from my latest parenting book, Your Children are Listening: Nine Messages They Need to Hear from You. In recent posts I’ve introduced you to the importance of sending healthy messages to your children. Here are a five simple rules to help ensure that your messages get through to your children loud and clear. […]
Read More