The goal of parenting should be to raise children with a healthy self-image and self-esteem, ingredients vital to success in school and life. That means accepting children the way they are born — gay or straight, athletic or cerebral, gentle or tough, highly intelligent or less so, scrawny or chubby, shy or outgoing, good eaters or picky ones.Of course, to the best of their ability, parents should give children opportunities to learn and enjoy activities that might be outside their natural bent. But, as attested to in many a memoir, forcing children to follow a prescribed formula almost always backfires.

It's a challenge to push a child to be all s/he can be without forcing the child to be someone s/he shouldn't be.

 You must help them motivate themselves; extrinsic motivation only lasts as long as the extrinsic factor is in the rear view mirror; intrinsic changes lasts up until the point where the change or desired outcome is achieved. 

Let's teach them to yearn for the sea, before we teach them to build boats.