As promised, here are more a few more ideas from the powerful little book, believe:

Believe that the universe is friendly and life is on your side.

"What is life for? It is for you." (Abraham Maslow)

You are probably familiar with Maslow's work – specifically that the need for love and belonging comes behind only those most pressing physical requirements, such as food and safety. We can help our children to feel that they belong – in our families, in our communities, and yes – even in the universe, and that these places are mostly safe and welcoming.

Believe in doing great work.

"The key is to trust your heart to move where your unique talents can flourish. This old world will really spin when work becomes a joyous expression of the soul." (Al Sacharov)

In order for our kids to discover places where they can do great work, they need opportunities (throughout their growing up years) to try a variety of pursuits. They will end up gravitating toward things that are important to them - music, art, sports, whatever; it may be something we would never guess!

This will probably be a somewhat lengthy process and I believe that we should avoid pushing them too firmly into areas of our own interests. A friend and parenting mentor of mine gave me some very wise advice about this. Thanks, Jann Hill!

Believe that there is always, always, always a way.

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't."

(Thomas Edison)

Mr. Edison was certainly a role model for persistence. Some children are naturally persistent; others will need coaching in that direction. I am a big fan of the positive, self-fulfilling prophecy: "I predict that your stamina will grow as you do and you'll be able to persist more and more strongly!" That said, sometimes we may need to put a challenging problem aside and come back to it later. If we model doing that ourselves, our kids will notice!