A Blog for My Kids

#7 – Make good art above all else

September 17, 2017 by Dad

You don’t have to go to a reputable college or university and put yourself in debt. You don’t have to work at a reputable corporation for a large salary. You don’t have to work in a big city at a job where you work 60 hours a week to try and get ahead. You don’t have too, but of course, you can if you wish.

What I recommend you do is focus on making good art. What does that mean? It means find something that you love to do, and that focuses on helping people, and do it in a way that is creative and different. Make good art.

When you’re younger, good art might look like drawing birthday or get well cards for your grandparents. When you’re older, making good art might mean writing a book that inspires millions of people. [Read more…]

#6 – Live everyday like it’s your last, like Suzy did.

June 27, 2017 by Dad

Your mother and I recently lost a very good friend of ours. She died of cancer and she was only 39 years old. Sad. But as sad as it is, we can all learn some very valuable lessons from our friend Suzy (who by the way was a great engineer).

There is a philosophy which says, “Live everyday like it is your last.” This essentially means live life to the fullest because you never know what is going to happen from one day to the next and you could lose anyone at any minute.

Suzy did this. She worked hard at work, she played sports, she skied, hiked, and also was also a great mother who was raising two young kids.

When your mother and I went to Suzy’s funeral, the church was filled with people saying amazing things about her, because she cared for people and took the time get to know people. She made people feel special. [Read more…]

#5 – When you get angry read this.

June 23, 2017 by Dad

Recently I became angry at people, but since the anger bothered me so much, I started reading from one of my favorite books: The Dali Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace. You can find the book on my shelf marked up, but here are some passages related to anger that I recommend you read when you feel angry.

“If I were to develop feelings of vindictiveness, anger, or hatred towards the Chinese, who would be the loser? I would, because I would thereby lose my own peace of mind, my sleep, and my appetite. At the same time, my bitterness would not affect the Chinese in the least. If I became extremely upset, that would also prevent me from making those around me happy.”

“All the great personalities of history, the liberators, the great thinkers, all such people reflect positive thinking; where as tragic events, tyranny, and terrible wars have resulted from negative thinking. Therefore the only thing that is really worthwhile is to increase the power and influence of positive thinking, and to reduce the occurrence of negative thinking. If you let anger and hatred run loose, you are lost. And no sensible human being wants to get lost.” [Read more…]

#4 – Measure things that you want to improve upon.

June 13, 2017 by Dad

For some reason most people don’t measure their progress in life. Now, if you are doing something for fun, or pure enjoyment, then maybe there is no reason to measure it. That makes sense. However, if you are trying to improve at something, figure out some way that you can measure your improvement. Here are a few examples: [Read more…]

#3 – You don’t really have to rush at anything.

March 19, 2017 by Dad

It seems in today’s world that everyone is always in a rush including me. Sorry if I rushed you too much at times, but just know — you don’t have to rush anywhere. Take your time.

I think creating deadlines for yourself can be healthy as doing so can really move you towards a goal, but often times, people do great work when they can take their time and really focus on the work. If you want to be an author, an artist, a content creator, or anything, don’t rush your work.

There is an excellent book on this topic entitled Deep Work by Cal Newport. I will add it to the list of MUST READ books that I am creating for you. Don’t worry you can listen to the books if you don’t want to read them.

I’ll close this lesson with a great quote from an Alabama song (I know you don’t know who they are): [Read more…]