Adulthood
When adults speak of children and adolescents, their resilience often comes up as a topic of conversation. But are children really more resilient than adults, or do adults hold children more accountable than they do themselves? Here is the link to the video we reviewed in Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP14X8MXAXA. As an adult, how long would you have persevered under those circumstances?
With adulthood comes more autonomy and independence. No longer are parents, teachers and coaches insisting that we eat in a healthy fashion, exercise on a regular basis or complete our chores before bedtime. When George Bush, Sr. famously announced that he was President of the United States and wasn’t going to eat broccoli anymore it was empowering, maybe even invigorating for many adults. I’m a grownup and I don’t have to do that anymore. But with adulthood also comes more responsibility, including accountability for one’s own well-being.
Despite our parents’ best attempts, so often the life patterns we develop as adults are comfortable but not particularly supportive of continued growth. We aren’t less resilient than we were as children, we’re less motivated. Do you really think that sheer will and determination were the only things that drove that boy to keep pushing that trash bin, or was he driven because it was his assigned chore and he’d be in trouble if he didn’t complete it? I suspect the latter. We are ultimately responsible for the decisions we make, the foods we eat, the activities in which we engage and our continued personal growth. How, then, does one self-motivate? We’ll work on that in Part 5.