Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Raising kids is hard. Building loving relationships is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Picky wisely. Success in life and family is hard. Nothing worthwhile will ever be easy because success is never given. We have to earn it every day. The great thing about this life that can be hard is we get to choose our hard. Ultimately our success is up to one person, and that is the person in the Read more…
Skill and attitude are essential. Authority is not. In fact, authority can get in the way. – Seth Godin In most cases, we think that leadership and authority go hand in hand. If you are a leader, it is because you have a title of some sort. On the other side, if you are a leader, we think you automatically have authority. With authentic leadership, authority does not matter. As family leaders, we often rely too much on our title as a parent and not our attitude or skill. There is a phrase that I know I have used in my family too many times that is a sure sign that you are hiding behind authority. That is the phrase Read more…
“Small Deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall Small deeds are never glamorous, but they always add up when consistently done. In our families, we want that one big thing. If we did this, it would change our family overnight. There is no get rich quick route to family success or success in general. It always comes in the form of thousands of small deeds. Think about the consistent small deeds you have the chance to do every day. Something as small as saying I love you to those around you. Think about if you did this small action every day. Your family members heard this at least 365 times a year. Year after year, when Read more…
Remember when you were young, and all you wanted to do was play. I would always try and get my chores done early in the day to go around the corner and play with my best friend. My day was all around doing whatever I could to go play. When is it when we lose this sense of play? With all the things on our to-do list, I am sure there is not one bullet on there that says go play. Take time to play today. It might be with your kids or some long-lost hobby you have not done in some time. Play keeps us young, and more importantly, it keeps us happy. Find something that stimulates your Read more…
The blank canvas of a new year can be something that we look forward to because we get a fresh start to create another year of our lives. At the same time, last year brought us many opportunities to change whether we liked it or not. No matter where we ended last year, we have the chance to create the person we want to become this year. Here are four ways to take control of who you want to become this year. Simplify – Often, we start to think about all the things we need to start doing or something we need to bring into our lives. What if this year we took the opposite approach? What are things Read more…