Reese Witherspoons honest parenting technique is essential for success

Reese Witherbeispoons honest parenting technique is essential for successReese Witherspoons honest parenting technique is essential for successA recent feature in Fast Company, titled A day in the life of Reese Witherspoon, offers some insight not only into the actress andentrepreneursdaily routine, but also into her feelings on brutal honesty.Heres Witherspoon, as told to Mary Kaye Schilling I feel like Im constantly counteracting pressure from the parents who want to make the lives of their kids golden and magical at all moments Guess what, kids? Youre going to be disappointed and uncomfortable once in a while.Witherspoon shares a personal example of how she took the faux gold and magic out of parentingI remember Ava her daughter, now 19 years old crying in bed in third grade - she was on JV basketball and she was the only kid on the team who didnt score. I said, Aves, maybe yourebadat basketball. She thought that was mean. I said, Mean or true? Cause, guess what? Your moms bad at basketball, too. Brutal honesty seems to be the MO in Witherspoons marriage as well. Witherspoon told Fast Company I quit driving a year ago. My husband Jim Toth said, Babe, youre a terrible driver. Get someone to do that for you. And its great because thats the time I now spend catching up on phone calls or texts.Witherspoon isnt the only parent whos talked up the benefits of being candid with their kids. OnParenting.com, Janelle Hanchett, author of Im Just Happy to Be Here A Memoir of Renegade Mothering, writes that she told her daughter (coincidentally, also named Ava) she wasnt good at sports.Hanchett remembers explaining to Ava, Youre in 5th grade and read Charles Dickens. That aint normal. But youve done it without even trying. But all of us also have things that we are NOT naturally good at. If we want to get good at those things, we absolutely can, but we have to put in twice the effort of the people around us to get to the decent point and even harder if we want to excel. Apparently, Ava got the drift.Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknessesEven if youre not brutally honest with others about their shortcomings, being honest with yourself is important. In anotherFast Company article, Mike Templeman, founder of Foxtail Marketing, writes that you shouldnt be bogged down by your weaknesses that have no bearing on you becoming a huge success.By contrast, if there are weaknesses that will affect your ability to become successful, work on them To borrow from Templemans example, if youre a charismatic person with great ideas, you might want to pursue public speaking. And if youve got a habit of using filler words, thats something you should probably fix.Sometimes, being aware of your weaknesses can help you capitalize on them, instead of ignore them. (Ill refer you to the idea of thefixed versus growth mindset.)In his book Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker wrote that some of the worlds most successful people have achieved fame and glo ry because of - not in spite of - their eccentricities. For example, Michael Phelps has an unusual body type, which makes him an outstanding swimmer, but probably not a great runner.As Hanchett writes on Parenting.com, its important to let your kids know they arent the best at everything. Wouldnt she Hanchetts daughter also think the world should be working for her? Theres a word for that. Its called entitled.This article was originally published on Business Insider.