Motivating your children

I recently got some advice from an experienced mother whose children are now grown up and successful in life.
Her words to me were as follows (paraphrased):

• Do not spend all your time managing your children. There is no end to it and you are not doing anyone any favors by this. Do your part and let your children do theirs. In her case, she would leave to do some volunteer work on weekends leaving her children with chores or schoolwork, which she expects to be done when she gets back. The children have the freedom to schedule their time accordingly.
• Do not spend time nagging your children to do their work. If you limit their work to two activities and emphasize education, everything will get done and your children will not be a "jack of all trades.. master of none".
• It'll all work out. You only have to provide the motivation and encouragement.

Definitely made me think... I will try to:

• treat my pre-teen and teen as individuals who need guidance and motivation. (I feel sometime we end up treating colleagues and neighbors better than we treat our own kids)
• allow my kids to express their needs and let them schedule their work (help with the scheduling maybe)
• give my children the opportunity to show they can motivate themselves
• definitely expect more from my children (self motivation) from now on.. without being disappointed if they don't do as much as I'd have liked them to do.

The last sentence will need to be rewritten someday to clarify. A disconnect between my thoughts and the words - guess I need to think this through some more.