This is a persistent concern with parents if their teenager can take charge of their life – professional & personal. Having this conern is a good news. It is an opportunity to look at Responsibility from multiple windows.
- Ability: Having & growing the ability to respond to life
When children turn 13, or come to us who are 13-14-15-etc years, we tell them – do something big – in any field. BIG can be BIG in any dimension – scope, time, effort, reach, skill level and so on – or mostly a combination of these.
The Response-ability is surely there in our youth. When the response required is bigger, the ability automatically grows. So when youth take on a big project, irrespective of it’s outcome – youth come out BIG.
- Choosing: which uses & develops intuition, analysis & judgment
Choosing or Deciding is at the heart of self-leadership. A Coversity journey (for teens) is about allowing them to consistently take their decisions to lead themselves. To use their intuitions and judgements – for these are the very drivers of life.
We’re telling them that it is not important whether your decision is good or bad, or that you are responsible for them or the consequences they lead to – rather the real deal is that whichever way your choice takes you – the next decision is still YOURS.
And this next decision is the juncture of reflecting, learning, insights, and wisdom.
In some ways we do not grow responsibility, rather responsibility grows us!
(In good old days they use to say for a wayward lad, “Marry him off and he will become responsible!”)
- Responsibility: Allowing ‘regret’ so that I develop a sense of what is right/wrong for me
Responsibility guarantees failures, disappointments and hence learning. So does life. In some ways taking responsibility and taking risks are the same!
When they step into their teen years, usually youth have a strong desire to go out – take responsibility / risks. We can hold them back and/or give our gyan or let their thinking, reflections and understanding be their engines.
Shall we let them have regrets early on in their life – when possibly they are not time bound and are ready to experiment and explore – just so their learning and growth is far stronger?
At CoVersity, we value this combo of responsibility-reflection from the child deeply. Shall we offer ourselves to them more as mirrors to reflect with. Mirrors who offer details sans conclusions, objectivity sans judgements, options sans decisions