Why would I?
Wear a mask.
Commit to that project.
Take the first step to mend a relationship.
Respect the rules.
Be kind to others.
Pay taxes.
Give back to the community.
Sit down and just listen.
Not lie.
When nobody else is doing it?
It is a way of hiding that lowers the bar. In your family, your company, your circle, your life. Chances are that nobody is acting out of habit, ignorance, laziness. Perhaps all they need is somebody who shows them a different way.
That somebody could be you.
If you draft a list of what is important and you end up with more than three items, that is just a to-do list.
You can focus on one item at any single time, and you can allow one or two more for when that single, most important one is giving you a break. That is it. Anything that you add on top of that is just confusion and distraction, sucking up energies and resources that you could otherwise invest delivering against what is important.
You pick the items on that list. But make it so they are no more than three.
Every father (every parent, to be fair) learns to live with a sort of contradiction.
On one side, you know your kids are the most important thing in life. You would do anything for them, and in many cases you do. You put them first when you plan, you consider their feelings and needs to an extent you have never before experienced. You change your habits, your routines, your hobbies, and your interests.
On the other side, you gradually learn that you are the most important thing in their lives. That your sacrifice is often not needed, and sometimes even counterproductive. That your stretching yourself too thin means your kids will have to deal with a cranky and angry adult. And they will learn that’s how you are supposed to behave. That planning half an hour to do your stuff, undisturbed, will allow you to dedicate your full attention to them for the following couple of hours.
And so, we live with this contradiction, we struggle to find a balance, we tell ourselves stories. Until we realize that it is not a contradiction at all. No one who does not take care of themselves can expect to have a healthy relationship with anybody, let alone kids.
You put yourself first, to put them first.
Happy Father’s Day (in the Nordic Countries, at least)!
There is no growth without crisis, and you cannot sow seeds without breaking the ground first.
Every low, no matter how desperate it might look, can be followed by the highest high you have ever experienced. No guarantee on the timing, but if you stay present, if you learn, if you develop, if you continue on the path you have chosen, if you open up, if you extend a hand, if you respect and appreciate, eventually the moment will come.
And when that will happen, you’ll have it confirmed that where you were is more important than where you are now. It is the journey that makes the destination, not the other way around.
Change is inevitable, constant, and necessary.
And when you think about being an agent of change, there is one simple thing that is worth remembering: start with yourself.
Changing yourself is possible, it is under your control, and chances are that by changing yourself you are also going to change the people and the world around you.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
Rumi
You've got this 