You don't have to be important to do something important. This is something I realized when I started this whole journey, I kept hearing how great it was that I battled within the system on my own and was successful. The reality is I'm just a normal guy, I'm not anything more now then I was 1, 2 or even 5 years ago, except maybe a little wiser. The fact is that your importance is the same as your value and your happiness, they all depend upon you. How important to you want to be? For me this wasn't about recognition it was about doing the right thing, my importance depended heavily upon my own success. It's pretty cut and dry. I didn't want to do this to get recognized or appreciated, I did what I thought I had to do, what I thought was necessary. Doing something important can mean a variety of things but here and now, my intention with the comment is to imply that your kids will find small thing important. Going out to dinner, taking them out of school for the day in order to go to the zoo or a movie, these things mean the world to them. Sometimes it's even simpler than that. I can think of one time where I took my son to see the Hampden lights in Baltimore city right before Christmas, it's actually a lot of fun to walk that solitary city block when it is fully lit up. We drove around the downtown area, ate some junk food and we simply just talked. Nothing really special to me, but to him it meant the world. He wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks on end. Finding these moments to make your children feel important, in turn makes you important. You are already in most cases one of the most important people in their lives, but taking that extra step to show them that you care, that life is more than just about the necessities. Our roles as fathers can be muddled sometimes, we are expected to provide and no one really sees much beyond that. It's important to step outside that label and exceed expectations, it's vital to your children's growth for you to see the world through their eyes, even if it's only for a minute. So be important, in your own way, strive to show these future leaders of the world that the business of grown-up life can be put on pause to actually enjoy the world. You will promote a sense of pride within them and this will carry on into their own children's lives one day, besides nothing feels better then hearing the words "remember that time..." and the rest isn't negative. The things that will matter to us most at the end of our time here on earth is our relationships with other people, so why wait until the end to appreciate what you had all along? |
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