“He knows exactly what he wants to do in the middle. He is always calm and composed. He allows himself to make those tough decisions on the field. For me, he will always be my captain.” – Virat Kohli
Every die-hard cricket fan will not forget 7:29 pm on 15th of August, 2020. India was celebrating its 74th Independence day and a star slowly stepped down the stage. We are talking about one of the greatest cricketers world cricket has ever known. We are talking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
After 16 long years devoted to his cricketing career, Captain Cool pulled down the curtains one last time. However, through his journey, he has taught a lot of people the true meaning and essence of life. And young kids are no exception. Moreover, MS Dhoni has time and again displayed amazing skills that are a true inspiration to the younger generations!
Here is a list of 7 such lessons inspired from MS Dhoni which you can teach your kids
1. Always be humble
We all know of his achievements. He is a top-class player popular not only in his country but also the whole world. And yet, he is extremely down-to-earth.
An example is how we always see him standing in the corner for any trophy picture which his team picks up. This is one of the most important lessons for kids. Children are talented and bring lots of laurels and appreciation their way. However, staying humble helps them grow and stay focused on improving themselves even more. So even if their head is high up in the clouds, make sure their feet are on the ground. They will learn to value and respect the small little things and never take anything for granted.
2. Academic success is not everything
Dhoni was not an extremely smart student. He did just okay in studies. But he made sure to cover that up on the field. So if your child is discouraged because of his academics, motivate him and help him find something he is good at. Let him work on it and sharpen his skills. But also make sure that you are able to keep up with studies. Marks are not everything, but they are important.
MSD himself says that academics and other interests should be well balanced. So help your child find his interest and balance it well.
3. Be a leader as well as a team player
Being a leader is a matter of utmost responsibility but so is being a team player. MS Dhoni led the Indian Cricket Team and his IPL team for a long time and performed well. But he kept up his performance even when he was no longer the captain.
So teach your child to be a just leader and an equally dedicated team player. Only because he did not get selected as the class monitor or school project leader, he need not be discouraged. Rather teach him to put the same amount of effort and play his role.
4. Don’t be afraid to dream big!
MS Dhoni’s whole life is an example of this. Who knew that a ticket collector from Ranchi would be leading team India one day? That the same person would bring home the World Cup?
This is all because he dared to dream and while he was at it, he dared to dream big! So children need to be motivated and inspired to dream big! Like the quote goes, let your children aim for the moon because even if they fall, they will land on the stars.
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5. Work hard and also work smart
There is no alternative to hard work. All of us know from his movie that he never stopped working for his dream. He used to manage finishing his exams 30 minutes before the given time and rush to catch a train for practice. Furthermore, even when he had a set job as a ticket collector, Dhoni always made sure to not miss his practices even if the days at work were long and tiring. Similarly he exactly knew how to spend his time wisely. He had his priorities set first and then he went about a plan to execute them.
This is exactly what children need to learn. Let them outline a map of their priorities. You can start with the smallest of things like making a timetable for the day or making a plan for a class project. And once they are set with it, let them work hard to achieve the same. It will take effort and time but let children learn and not shy away from working hard and smart.
6. Don’t be scared of obstacles
Hailing from a middle class family, Dhoni had problems with funding his career when he was just getting started. Moreover, he was quite disappointed with his performances in the under 19 matches and struggled during the Ranji Trophy as well. But all this didn’t discourage him. On the contrary, he was motivated to overcome these obstacles in pursuit of his goal. He faced his challenges head-on and corrected what was going wrong. In addition to this, he took a bold decision of completely quitting his set job to pursue cricket.
So everything that came as an obstacle, he turned them into opportunities. The same goes when teaching children. Let them face their challenges with a bold front without being scared of the end result. In this tough, competitive world children will face a lot of ups and downs with numerous roadblocks. Make them strong mentally so no matter how intense the task is, they won’t budge. It might take them time to reach there but at least they won’t be scared of the rocky road lying ahead.
7. Have faith and trust yourself
Billions of people with bated breaths rejoiced when Dhoni hit the World Cup winning six! With people watching and scrutinizing his every move, he couldn’t afford to make a mistake now. And he didn’t. He delivered what was expected of him and even more! And all of this was because of one thing – he believed in himself. Ever since the beginning, when he started playing cricket to when he ran around attending practices and handling academics to when he started and quit his job to focus on his game, he could come this far because he had faith in himself and his abilities. Not once did he doubt his goals and was constantly working to make himself better to attain them. Similarly, let your kids have faith and courage in their own selves first.
Even when they make mistakes and fail, let them learn from it and believe that they can do better the next time. Self-confidence is extremely important and the sooner children learn and experience it, the easier will they be able to execute the task at hand. Because no matter how much you try to help them lead their lives towards the path of success, in the end they are the builders of their own future.