This morning I was reading a book called "The Dip" by Seth Godin. It is written for a business audience, but I stumbled across a concept that transfers perfectly coaching a child (or anybody for that matter) as they work toward a goal.
The main concept of the Dip goes roughly like this: in working on anything worthwhile we eventually hit a dip. The dip is the routine, boring, or sometimes painful obstacle or barrier to the next level of achievement. Successful people learn to recognize the difference between a dip and a dead end. They power through good dips to a higher level of achievement while passing on the dead end, or cul-de-sac dips.
Take music for instance. It's a thrill to play a note on a horn for the first time. But to play a series of notes takes focused practice. First you must learn the notes, and then you must practice to play them at the right time. The barrier to achieving the next level is hours of developing the basics. Many people quit, but those who succeed power through the boring routine and hit a higher level of achievement. Then they hit the next dip and the process repeats.
This is a great concept for businesses analyzing a market before entry, but when I read this I thought about my kids. This concept applies to everything from academia to mountaineering.
The idea that a dip, challenge, and adversity is something to be sought after is a powerful concept indeed. Once you learn to recognize a dip, you learn to assess and visualize the upside on the other side of the dip. If the upside is worth it, you accept the challenge and power through it. If the upside doesn't fit into your plans or long range goals, or if the dip is a dead end, you exit. By exiting the dead end dips and keeping the dips that matter you focus your resources and achieve the next level of whatever it is you are doing.
If I started thinking about this when I was fourteen, I can't even begin to list the decisions that I would have made differently. My kids are four and two... way too young to get this. But someday this idea will provide us with a model for a conversation about goals, adversity, challenge, and reward. I'm looking forward to it.
