edition #23
Grit for kids
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resilience
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12
gifts for the gritty ones
The Benefit of Calluses
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gritty bunch
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stuffed tamagoyaki
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Three Steps to Develop Grit
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focus
cover: Kids Nation is a bi-monthly magazine, dedicated to empowering kids around the world. It is published by MOS Design Creative (www.mosdesign.com.au).
Meredith H. (Australia)
Copyright © Kids Nation magazine. All rights reserved. Reproducing without permission is prohibited. Copyright of articles and photos remain with the individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission.
Website: kidsnationmag.com 3
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from the editor Long time ago, I heard a famous story of a man, who patiently watched a butterfly as it struggled to emerge from its cocoon. After several hours, the man decided to set the butterfly free by cutting open the cocoon with a scissors. We all know the end of the story... I love how Kari Kampakis explains it in her book:
“The butterfly spends the rest of its life crawling on the ground, never realizing its potential. What the man didn't realize ... both the tight cocoon and the work required to push through the tiny opening are God's way of forcing fluid from its body to get the butterfly's wings ready for flight. By “helping” the butterfly, the man actually crippled it."1
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Just like how a butterfly pushes through the tight cocoon so its wings get stronger in the process, we also become stronger, when we learn to face our challenges and fears. There is no courage without fear, no victory without a battle, no pure gold without fire. Take heart, dear one. You are precious and loved.
xo, Mia
Kampakis, Kari "10 Ultimate Truths Girls Should Know", page 108, Thomas Nelson, 2014. 5
this edition’s contributors:
MIA SETYAWAN AUSTRALIA EDITOR & FOUNDER KIDS NATION MAG kidsnationmag.com Mia is a mother of two boys and owns an award winning graphic design studio in Australia. She is passionate about imparting positive values to the next generation. Mia has been a volunteer at a local children program for over 10 years.
Randell D. Turner UNITED STATES child & family Therapist pacounseling.com Randell Turner, Ph.D. specializes in working with men and fathers. He has authored award winning resources for organizations like the National Center for Fathering, National Fatherhood Initiative and Fatherhood.gov. Follow him on Unbreakable Bond group.
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dr. Tim Elmore UNITED STATES founder & president growing leaders growingleaders. com Tim is an international speaker, founder and president of Growing Leaders, an organization equipping today's young people to become the leaders of tomorrow. He is best-selling author of more than 30 books, including Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future and the Habitudes® series.
Desi Trisnawati INDONESIA food artist & chef consultant inspirational-chef. com Desi is the winner of Masterchef Indonesia 2012 and the first female Masterchef Indonesia. She is the author of 20 Fun Recipes of Strong Heart and creator of the Indonesia's first culinary board game Cooking with Inspirational Chef Desi.
this edition’s contributors:
Jarryd Burns australia Co-founder thankyou thankyou.co Jarryd Burns is Co-founder and Head of Supply & Procurement at Thankyou. He makes sure all Thankyou products get from their suppliers to their customers. He is extremely passionate about what he does and making sure its done well. He lives with his wife Jess and their two daughters.
Shéri Brynard south africa teacher, speaker & down syndrome ambassador sheribrynard.co.za Shéri Brynard is the only person with Down syndrome who has a tertiary teacher’s diploma (without any concessions made) in South Africa. She is also an international ambassador for people with Down syndrome and a motivational speaker. Her book is available on Amazon.com in 2 languages.
JEN BRICKER united states Aerialist, author & Speaker jenbricker.com Jen, born without legs, is an acrobat and aerialist. Seemingly against all odds, Jen went on to compete against able-bodied athletes, and became a State Champion in power tumbling. Her story is detailed in her memoir Everything Is Possible: Finding the Faith and Courage to Follow Your Dreams, which was a New York Times bestseller. Eloise Wellings australia athlete & founder love mercy lovemercyfoundation.org Eloise Wellings is a dual Olympian and humanitarian. She placed 9th and 10th respectively in the 10,000m and 5,000m track events in Rio. She uses her athletics career to bring awareness to the work of Love Mercy Foundation, an organisation working to restore hope in northern Uganda.
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resilience words: Randell D. Turner | artwork: mia setyawan
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nothing worthwhile is developed overnight ...
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you may fail before you succeed, but don’t quit!
©k id sn at io nm ag
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... it will be worth it in the end.
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inspire
Gritty bunch
photo: charlotte jones
photo: jen bricker, born without legs and abandoned at birth, proves that everything is possible.
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JEN BRICKER united states Aerialist, author & Speaker jenbricker.com
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ou were born for purposes and plans, not by mistake. You are valuable and have things to offer the world through your gifts, talents and abilities.
The very things you are passionate about are the things you can use to touch and change someone’s life. Your life matters. Your gifts and abilities are EQUALLY as powerful and meaningful as anyone else’s. Your life most likely will look different than other people’s lives — but that uniqueness and diversity should be celebrated! You have the power in you to CHANGE A LIFE ... but you have to believe it and do something with it. When we live a life putting others first, using what we were born with, it’s a win win across the board! Go change a life!“
“You were born for purposes and plans, not by mistake.” — jen bricker
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photo: thankyou
“with patience and persistence, you'll be able to overcome any challenges.” — jarryd burns
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ne of the most important things you need to do in approaching a challenge is to understand why you want to overcome it. What is it that’s worth fighting for? Why is it worth sticking at it? And don’t try to do it all on your own. Reach out to your family and friends - I promise there’s a lot of wisdom and experience in an older generation. And lastly, you just need to hang in there. We live in a really fast paced world where we can expect things to happen quickly but with patience and persistence, you’ll be able to overcome any challenges that come your way.
Jarryd Burns australia Co-founder thankyou thankyou.co 14
photo: eloise wellings
“never give up!” — eloise wellings
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ometimes things can happen in life that make you feel scared, sad, or just plain tired. My friend Julius always says to me, “never give up” and he should know, because his life has been more difficult than most. He grew up in a very poor village in Uganda, Africa, with no running water or electricity. His home town suffered from a very long and violent war. He lost his mum during the fighting. But he never gave up. He kept trying and trying until he managed to run in the Olympics! I met Julius when I was trying to go to the Olympics for running too. Sometimes things feel more difficult if you’re on your own, but its important to remember that there are always people around you who can help you succeed, like your parents, your teachers, your family and your friends.
Eloise Wellings australia athlete & founder love mercy lovemercyfoundation.org 15
"strength" necklace The Giving Keys
gifts for the
gritty ones compiled by: mia setyawan
helicopter 3D wooden kit Art-Laser
Dream chaser book Thankyou 16
'The boy who runs' Love Mercy Foundation
'unstoppable me' Adam Dirks, with Bethany Hamilton
geometric wooden puzzle The Crafty Smiths
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photo: Free-Photos
fatherhood
The Benefit of Calluses BY: Randell D. Turner 18
My father taught himself to play the guitar. Day after day he played the same songs, which was a little annoying, but in the end he became quite good.
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ut during those first few months his fingers ached until calluses developed to protect his fingertips. Once calluses formed, he enjoyed playing more, spending hours playing, singing, and even writing songs. None of which would have happened if he didn’t willingly go through the pain of developing calluses. The same is true for Olympic gymnasts, years of perseverance and practice has resulted in callused hands. So much so that many don’t like to shake your hand because they’re so rough. So it is for many workers such as; farmers, construction workers, tennis players, rodeo riders, baseball catchers and pole-vaulters to name a few. Each intentionally and knowingly persisted through the pain until calluses formed, making the work easier and more enjoyable. Because life is difficult we all could benefit from developing a few calluses. Calluses are the outward sign of your inner character traits. Traits such as courage, self-discipline, sacrifice, perseverance, patience, and resilience enabled you to persist in accomplishing your goal despite the difficulty. This kind resilient character doesn’t develop without experiencing struggle, resistance, disappointment, and quite often pain. Resilient character cannot be developed any other way. However once developed, it equips you to aspire toward even greater accomplishments. 19
"resilient character doesn’t develop without experiencing struggle, resistance, disappointment, and quite often pain." Randell D. Turner
Living a life that attempts to ignore or avoid struggle, resistance, disappointment, and pain only makes you feel weak and insecure. With no life experience in dealing with difficulty or pain successfully, you resist or run away from situations that require resilience. Resulting in living a less fulfilling life that unfortunately your family sadly believes to be normal. So how can you change this? If so, how can a resilient character be developed? Yes you can change this and it can only be developed, no one is born with a resilient character. Here are some recommended ways to discover and develop resiliency in you and the lives of your loved ones: 20
Seek out information, help and support ... from supportive friends or family member that you admire for their resilient spirit. They’ve had to deal with difficult people or bullies a time or two. Their experience and encouragement will help you to persevere and stick with it. Start simply and slowly. Like calluses nothing worthwhile is developed overnight. The key is consistency. It will take time, often more than you planned but worth it in the end.
photo: Michal Jarmoluk
Accept that developing resilience will cause you discomfort and sometimes pain. This is normal, by learning to accept the discomfort and pain as part of the process, you develop resilience. For example bullies. You or your child will likely encounter difficult person in the work place or a bully at school. Bullying is wrong, but unfortunately it’s also a reality. Therefore resilient parents prepare their children for dealing with difficult people, like bullies. Thereby equipping them for the realities of life instead of just hoping for the best.
don't quit! Accept that you may fail before you succeed, but don’t quit. Persistence is the key to developing a resilient character. Practice is required. As the saying goes; “perfect practice makes perfect”. Therefore I recommend that you enlist someone to help you practice dealing with difficult people. And help your children practice dealing with bullies so that both are better prepared. Remember resilience can be learned and/or taught to anyone at any age. Whether it’s learning to play the guitar, dealing with difficult people or ride a broncing bull at the rodeo each will require resilient heart. And perhaps a few calluses. Be mindful that “What comes easy won’t last and what lasts won’t come easy”. But it will be worth it in the end. One final note, my father wrote, played recorded a CD of original music before he passed away. Because of his persistence his children and grand children continue to the music he loved.
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photo: desi trisnawati
cook
stuffed tamagoyaki by: desi trisnawati
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INGREDIENTS:
METHOD:
3 eggs
1. Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Season well with salt and pepper.
1 stalk of chive, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons of carrot (small dice) 1 leaf of purple cabbage (small dice) 2 tablespoons of cooked brown rice 1-2 tablespoons of mozzarella cheese Salt and pepper Oil Tips: As alternative, you can replace brown rice with pasta / quinoa or potato. You can use any vegetable you have available in the fridge.
2. Stir in the chive, carrot and cabbage into the egg mixture. 3. Heat the oil in a square frying pan. Pour in 1/2 egg mixture, tilting pan so mixture covers base. 4. When the egg is half set, sprinkle the cooked rice and the cheese. Roll up omelette into a log and move it to one end of the pan. 5. With the rolled omelette still in the pan, repeat the process again. Pour in the remaining egg mixture to cover base. Lift the previously rolled omelette to ensure the new egg mixture go under it too. Roll up into a log and cook until it is golden. 6. Allow to cool a little bit, then serve.
To make it creamier, you can add milk and butter into the egg mixture.
Step #5
For more recipes, follow Desi on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram 23
photo: Jason Goh
leaders
hip
Three S teps to Deve lop Grit
BY: tim
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elmore
John Lennon once said, “People thought we were an overnight success. But we weren’t at all. We’d been playing for years at thousands of concerts in front of small crowds in Liverpool and Hamburg. Sometimes for eight hours a day. We worked to keep the audiences’ attention. We played … but it was work.”
This “overnight success” was years in the making, almost in private without any glitz. Lennon went on to say, “We had a little saying when we got depressed after a poor showing or a small audience and we felt we were going nowhere. John would say: “Where are we going fellas?” The rest answered: “Straight to the top, Johnny.” “And where is that?” John would say. The other three would say: “The toppermost with the coppermost.” It kept them going and kept them laughing through the hard times. They endured long road trips, where they’d find themselves together in the restroom just to get away from the crowds. John Lennon and Paul McCartney learned to write songs on the road. Those two wrote about 300 songs together. One was right handed and the other left handed, so they could literally both have a pencil and be writing at the same time in between cities.
They would talk through what they were writing, then one would change a note and the other the lyrics. The two agreed, “We’d ricochet off each other.” Then, in one year The Beatles went from the cellar to the top of the charts. That’s the story we know. In April 1965, the top five songs on the billboard charts were all The Beatles’ songs. Amazing. That’s mental toughness. What’s Grit Got to Do with It? We always see film of The Beatles on stage. What we rarely see are the hours they spent practicing and preparing. That’s where grit and mental toughness comes in. Some say grit is simply the perseverance and passion to achieve long-term goals. Angela Duckworth, a leading researcher on the subject of grit, reveals that it is a strong predictor of success and the ability to reach one’s goals. 25
Ms. Duckworth’s research is quite encouraging:
How to Develop Mental Strength
West Point cadets who scored highest on the Grit Test were 60% more likely to succeed than their peers.
Step 1: Choose one topic for which you will become mentally tough.
Ivy League students who had more grit also had higher GPAs than their peers—even though they had lower SAT scores and weren’t as “smart.” Competitors in the National Spelling Bee outperform their peers—not due to IQ, but because of their grit and commitment to more consistent practice.
I recently asked John Maxwell what preoccupied his thoughts these days. He immediately replied: “sustained thinking.”By this he meant the ability to continue reflecting on a topic when the novelty has worn off. It means going for days pondering different angles of a subject to see every side of it. It means you welcome boredom for a season, sticking with it when other new ideas or activities are clamoring for your attention. I suggest you choose an issue or activity and give it sustained thinking or effort. This may be: Going one month without missing a workout. Working on a white paper or a research project for ten extra days. Delivering your work ahead of schedule for four days in a row.
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Step 2: Build grit with small practical wins.
Step 3: Depend on muscle memory, not on motivation.
Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop. Choose to do the tenth rep when it would be easier to just do nine. Choose to create when it would be easier to consume. Choose to ask the extra question when it would be easier to accept.
Grit isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions— over and over and over again.
Prove to yourself—in a thousand tiny ways— that you do have what it takes to conquer a mountain. Too frequently, we think grit is about how we respond to extreme situations, but what about common circumstances? The best way to develop mental strength is to slowly build gritty steps into your routines, little by little. Then add a step each week.
Don’t wait for motivation to sneak up on you. Mentally tough people don’t have to be more talented or more intelligent—just more consistent. Grit comes down to your habits. It’s about doing the things you know you’re supposed to do on a more consistent basis. It’s about your dedication to daily practice and your ability to stick to a schedule. The Beatles proved to everyone what mental toughness can do. There are millions of “garage bands” that rehearse after school. Only a few do it long enough to earn the right to be heard by millions. They were one of those bands.
"Mentally tough people don’t have to be more talented or more intelligent—just more consistent." — tim elmore 27
focus words: Shéri Brynard | artwork: mia setyawan
whatever you focus on, you magnify ...
©kidsnationmag
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... So Do not focus on your challenges.
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You cannot always change your circumstances, but you can change the way you look at them.
Sheri Brynard was born with down syndrome. Today, she is a fully qualified assistant teacher.. 30
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