Simplify Your Life as a Dad
Kids, family, and learning to simplify Your Life
Raising kids, as a normal man with big dreams for his family, in today’s world can be brutal. You want the best for your family; i.e. great friends, beautiful home, comfortable lifestyle, and adventures to keep your family engaged – you want the good life. But all these “wants” can be draining for men both mentally and physically. The key to “the good life” is learning how to simplify your life.
This “good life” is like a rainbow’s end. No matter how close you get and how hard you try to catch it, the elusive end of the rainbow keeps moving away from you. Reach and reach, but it seems like it’s always just out of my grasp. That damn leprechaun keeps moving his pot of gold.
What are we chasing?
Are we chasing comfortable life, or are we chasing something else? Self-assurance maybe?
Are we digging into those memories that we had as children and longing for our kids to have a great childhood; do we want them to have lives that somehow resemble ours? Sure, we all want our kids to have an incredible childhood; we want or children to grow up, turn around, and look at their life – that we helped to create and mold – smile and be happy.
That grown-up fist bump that says, “Thanks mom, thanks dad; you kicked ass raising me.” We want them to be able to reach down into their pockets and pull out those memories and share them with their spouses, kids, friends, etc. – because that’s what we do. We connect our past to our present, and try to shape their futures. Our connections are made through memories and sharing those memories.
How to simplify your life and discover happiness
As a man in his mid-thirties and now a father of two, I think it comes down to one thing. I have to put aside our quest to chase that comfort we had as kids and forge our own paths for our children’s lives.
We have to step to the side and let them grow and learn from their experiences; good and bad. I’m not one to compete with the Jones’s next door. I don’t want a pile full of toys and gadgets and stuff that I have to manage and organize – the more stuff I have the more I have to clean and keep track of. I compete more with myself than with the Jones’s next door. I compete with myself to be a better father, husband, and person every day.
Early on, I set expectations for what I wanted in my life when I wanted those milestones to happen. Growing up and hitting my prime teen and college years, I always told myself I wanted to be married by the time I was 25. At the age of 24, I married my wife and we have been inseparable for 10+ years. I said I wanted kids by the time I was 26; my first child, our son, was born in late 2006 when I was 26. I had my second child, my beautiful daughter, when I was 28…not a bad list of my life “wants” by the time I was 30. I was, and I still am, feeling great about life; at least I think I am.
All that being said, it brings me back to raising a family in today’s world and why I feel that blogging has allowed me to fight the good fight battling against society, against media, against our friends and neighbors, and battling against ourselves – our toughest opponent.
At the end of the day, you have to accept who we are and what you are made of. You have to simplify your life and appreciate the positives. That’s not to say we can’t improve and change certain characteristics we have, but it simply means you have one shot at life so embrace who you are and what you are doing.
Free Resources
- Check out a free chapter from: THE DAD’S EDGE on UNLIMITED PATIENCE HERE
- Check out this free resource on: CONNECTION WITH YOUR SPOUSE
- Check out this free resource on: CONNECTION WITH YOUR KIDS
Links
- Amazon Bestselling Book: The Dad’s Edge – 9 Simple Ways to Have: Unlimited Patience, Improved Relationships, and Positive Lasting Memories
- Larry’s New Course: The Dad’s Edge – 6 Strategies to Achieve: Unlimited Patience, Improved Relationships, and Positive Lasting Memories
- Good Dad Project Twitter Page
- Good Dad Project Facebook Page
- Good Dad Project Instagram Page
