How Trophies Can Help Motivate People Raising Low Self Assessment

Have you ever played a game like football and only wanted the trophy? Giving people, especially kids, what they really crave through playing is the trophy, which they receive at the end of the season. All kids love winning prizes; a big trophy would be a fantastic reward for them. A trophy can boost your confidence and drive your motivation in tough times. It’s something worth investing in, which could inspire ongoing participation and perseverance, even in the face of loss (“Are Participation Trophies Good or Bad”).

A trophy can significantly boost your confidence, providing a tangible goal to strive for. Young athletes might lose interest in sports early on if they aren’t bringing home the gold. A trophy at the end of the season serves as a positive reminder of good times spent with teammates, overshadowing the memory of consecutive losses. Some children naturally have low self-esteem and a lack of confidence. These kids thrive on regular praise; it helps them take risks and build resilience as they grow into adolescence and adulthood. These are the children who reap the most benefits from participation trophies, as these manifest the praise that could help to build their confidence and pave the way for future successes. To foster confidence in a child, it’s more effective to teach them to congratulate the winner than to make them believe that everyone performed the same (“Participation Trophies: How They Benefit Your Students”).

Getting a trophy can help to lessen the sting of losing. Examining how children react to loss, we see the importance of reliability and effort, regardless of whether these lead to victory or defeat. A child’s self-esteem is typically bolstered when they receive a trophy irrespective of their level of effort or achievement. Whether it’s a trophy or just a ribbon, it makes the child feel good to be part of a team, to compete, and to have fun. These children won’t feel excluded or inferior to their peers who won the league. It makes every child feel special. It raises their self-esteem. Bottom line — it’s a big pat on the back. Parents and kids alike feel great about it. It sends the message that sports are enjoyable and increases the likelihood that a child will yearn to play other sports to score another trophy (Medals, Trophies Plus. “Trophies Plus Medals”).

When you participate in sports, you often have to invest money and time, which leads some individuals to moot the idea, “pay to play”. Moreover, winning trophies boosts morale among young athletes. Often, these young athletes tend to lose interest in a sport if they do not experience wins frequently. This is why many leagues at the most primary levels abstain from maintaining a score. No child wants to feel incompetent every time they set foot on the playing field, court, or ice. A trophy, displayed in their bedroom, tends to positively reinforce their perseverance through a challenging season. Moreover, rewarding children solely based on outcomes rather than the efforts employed could potentially promote shortcuts in the future. In an experiment conducted by Cornell University, children were either admired for being intelligent or for their diligence. Later, these groups were presented with a choice between easy and progressively challenging tasks. Interestingly, 67% of the children labeled as smart chose the easy path while 92% of the children lauded for their hard work picked the more challenging one. Rather than instilling a binary concept of winning versus losing, participation trophies inspire children to venture into new tasks. It enlightens them that it is okay to not excel at something initially. The reward encourages persistence in exploring one’s passions. For example, an individual might receive a football trophy for merely warming benches, which prompts them to ponder about their potential if they invested more time and effort into the sport. The aim is to kindle a desire within to excel and persist (“The Pros and Cons of Participation Trophies for Young Athletes”).

However, critics argue that the constant praise for mere participation could be counterproductive for a child’s development. It exacerbates an artificial sense of self-assessment and diminishes their motivation to improve. Some experts have argued that it insulates children from experiencing failure and frustration, which doesn’t serve them well in the long run. When these kids get to college or start working, they are more likely to give up rather than press on in the face of adversity. They are predisposed to externalize blame on others instead of introspecting. The artificial notion of being special, inculcated in them over time, appears to be the root cause. This is corroborated by a study that reveals that over 50% of college students believe they deserve a grade of at least a ‘B’ for attending classes and participating. This sense of entitlement is perilous for our society.

This summarizes the discussion presented in this essay about the pros and cons of participation trophies. The central idea is that children should earn their trophies as it reflects their dedication and hard work. What’s your take on this? Should we reward kids with trophies they deserve or should they receive nothing for their efforts?

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