When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. –  Roy E. Disney There is real power when you have a clear understanding of your values. When you understand what you genuinely value, your actions will follow. If you watch a person who strives to uphold their values, they don’t need to tell you what those values are because you will see it in their actions. Our actions show others, but more importantly, show ourselves what we truly value. If your actions don’t match your values, you need to take a step back and ask yourself if this is something you really value. If it is, then you need to take action to uphold what you hold dear.  Read more…

People are very open-minded about new things – as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.  – Charles Kettering Many times in the office setting, you will hear a manager say they have an open-door policy. This means you can come in at any time to talk or give ideas. If the manager truly believes in this open-door policy, they can build some great rapport as well as get some game-changing ideas from their people. As a parent leader, you may not have a fancy office, but you can still implement this same policy. An open mind policy is more critical than how wide the crack in your door is. An open mind opens us up to opportunities to Read more…

“Marriages are much more likely to succeed when the couple experiences a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions whereas when the ratio approaches 1 to 1, marriages are more likely to end in divorce.” — John M. Gottman In a study done in the 1970s, researchers asked a married couple to solve a conflict in 15 min and observed the couples’ interaction. They then followed up with each couple 9 years later and predicted with 90% accuracy the couples that divorced during the 9 years. They were able to discover the simple formula for happiness. The couples that were still together had far more positive interactions than negative ones. Is it not rocket science, right? Researchers took Read more…

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.  -Chinese Proverb To have a harvest, you have to plant some seeds. How many seeds do you think a farmer plants to have a successful harvest? The same is true in the world of parent leadership. Leadership is about planting seeds and then tending to the weeds each day.  In many cases, that is what a good leader does. Tend to the weeds every day. If there ever was a labor of love, it is tending to the weeds of stoping your kids from fighting for the fourth time today. We work with Read more…

Life is happening for us, not to us. Tony Robbins   Our life changes when we start looking at it as happening for us and to us. When life is happening for us, our mindset changes, and we begin to look for ways to use situations to help us grow. We start to see ways to make any situation turn to our advantage.  I think we can all say this is easier said than done. Sometimes life is hard, and we don’t know why things are happening to make things difficult for us. When life happens for you, it does not mean that it is all sunshine and rainbows. It does mean whatever you are going through now, you can Read more…