Your guide to a healthier perspective of life
Courage is not never being afraid. Courage is having fear and acting anyways.
We are all fearful of something – being criticized, looking dumb, losing a loved one, losing our health, losing our status/reputation, losing our job/career/income, etc. But the only way to live life is to hear your fears, but to keep pushing forward.
Don’t let your fears stop you from taking action. Use them to motivate you to make your life better.
People fear losing so much that they end up losing. Everyone wants to be rich, but they are so afraid of possibly losing money, that they don’t invest. They lose out on reaching their potential because they play it too safe. It’s like the saying goes, everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. But if you don’t die, you can’t go to heaven. You are going to have ups and downs in life, you’re going to have failures and setbacks. But if you avoid risk altogether, you’re also avoid reaping the best rewards and guaranteeing that you won’t reach your full potential.
No risk = no reward.
Show them unconditional love. Tell them that you are always proud of them. They shouldn’t need to get good grades to earn your love.
Let them be curious. If they’re into something, make that thing seem important to you too. If they ask questions, no matter how silly they are or how many there are, encourage them to ask more. At the very least, don’t get annoyed when answering them.
Teach them that it’s ok when things don’t go their way.
Teach them that honesty is key, but if they can convey their honest opinion in a nice/respectful way, always opt to do it in that manner.
Be supportive, but not overbearing. Let them fail, but step in before it’s catastrophic.
If it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t let yourself stress over it for more than five minutes. Feel your feelings. You don’t have to be a robot. But if something isn’t going to matter in the grand scheme of things, let it roll off your shoulders. Why stress out over something that has already happened and that you can’t change? Try to remedy the situation or learn from your experience/get better so that same thing doesn’t happen again.
What is your default life code? If you could have a list to share with your children about how you want them to act, or how you should be acting for them to see, what would it be? Some of the things I want my kids to see from me are the following…
Always try your best, but have fun doing it.
Be respectful and kind.
Be humble in winning and in defeat. Act like you’ve been there before.
Hold yourself to high standards, but don’t judge others if they don’t do the same.
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
Be optimistic, but realistic.
Don’t worry, be happy. Life is good.