Growing Up

Growing up comes with a lot of feelings, from excitement, to being scared, from high to low points and being happy and being sad. The good thing is each day should count as a blessing as it is given to you by God. Every morning you wake up, start your day with prayers to give you strength and courage to face the day and every night as you go sleep, you thank God for the day that happened be it a good day or a bad day. Do not rush to be a grown up and to act like one. These are the best times of your lives. These are the times you discover the things you need to learn from animals, trees, flowers, the sun, the ocean and the birds and many many things. Enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the calm of the seas and run like a child full of energy and possibilities. You are a child once, savor the joys and fun that come with it. As you grow older, you will realize and look back and reminisce, what a good life that was. Equipped with a beautiful childhood, the future can't be too scary after all. It's something to look forward to. So be a child and enjoy being one.

Reading Is Fundamental

When I was growing up, there was a program in elementary school call RIF which stands for Reading Is Fundamental.  The way that the program worked was that when you read so many books (I think it was 10), that you got a free pizza at Pizza Hut and your name was entered into a drawing to win a bigger prize.  I think they call that technique dangling a carrot, and it worked because that Summer I read lots of books just to get the free pizza and also to have a chance to win the bigger prize.  To me it was all about the prizes and not so much about reading the books, the books were just a means to something bigger.  Fast forward to my high school days, where the RIF program was as far from mind as possible.  In fact I was in a group I guess you could categorize as the "Cool Crowd" or the "Athletes," and reading was viewed as what the "Nerds" do and in fact it was viewed as not "cool."  I took this same mentality into my college years, I read just what I needed to and mostly just for my classes, and mostly focused on playing baseball.  In not so many words you can say that my body grew physically from working out and playing baseball, but mentally I did not grow as much because I did not push myself to learn anything more than what needed to so that I could graduate.  Now fast forward into the business world, where people are less concerned about your physical prowess, but more concerned about your mental prowess.  This is not to say that it is not important to stay physically in shape, because to this day I still full believe this, but I will write about that in the future, this is more to tell you that you have to find a way to do both.

When I was younger if you read alot you were viewed as being an outcast, in the business world it is the opposite.  Whatever profession you get into, you are going to have to work with people that are older and people that are wiser than you, whether they are your co-workers, bosses, clients, or friends.  When I stepped into the business world this was somewhat intimidating to me, and I marveled at how much they knew and to some extent looked internally at how little I knew.  I am writing this to you to let you in on the secret that they figured out at some point in their lives.  The secret is that they read more than I did.  Not only did they read, but they read books on different topics, that is how they came upon all their knowledge.  They read books on politics, business, investing, leadership, science, etc.  Here is the key to reading, it is like anything you do in life, it has to become a habit, and the sooner you start the easier it will become part of who you are.  The best piece of advice I ever got was to just read 15 minutes a day, and if you do that consistently, you will get through a book a month.  Just imagine the knowledge you will have if you read 12 books a year on different topics.  No matter what business you look at, all the most successful people read books, they are thirsty for knowledge, new perspective, and growth both personally and professionally. 

So now that I am older and I look back on the RIF program, I understand what they were doing which is training us when we were young to develop the habits of reading.  When I was young, the RIF program was about the prize, but now I truly understand what the program stands for and it was in the title of the program all along, which is READING IS FUNDAMENTAL !!!!!!

Discipline Will Pay Off

I wanted to talk a little about this subject of discipline.  In society today, this quality has been devalued and almost looked at as a flaw rather than an asset.  People believe that if you are disciplined, that you are no fun and are not allowed to enjoy life because you are too strict on yourself.  I believe the opposite, without disciple, nothing can really be accomplished and also without discipline, there is bound to be chaos.  As I look around me, there is evidence of lack of discipline everywhere from crime all the way up to obesity.  I know that there are many factors that lead to someone causing a major crime or being overweight, but I bet that some of it has to do with discipline not being instilled in them during their lives.  Here is a story that the Priest told during church one Sunday about how discipline will pay off:

There was once a little boy who loved dessert, but his parents would not let him eat dessert until he ate all of his vegetables.  The little boy did not like this at all because when he talked to all his friends, they all told him that his parents were too strict because they all could have dessert whenever they wanted even if they did not eat any of their vegetables.  The little boy brought this up to his parents with no avail.  His parents explained how important it was to eat your vegetables, but more importantly that they were teaching him how to be disciplined.  The parents kept saying that "discipline will pay off."

One day, the little boy's Mom happened to stumble on a box that the little boy had beside his bed.  When the Mom opened it up, she found lots of money inside the box.  She did not know where it came from, so she decided to ask her son where he had gotten all the money.  What the little boy told his mom was that at school, the rules were the same for dessert as they were at home, nobody could have dessert until they ate their vegetables.  Since the other kids weren't disciplined enough to eat their vegetables before dessert, they would pay him money to eat their vegetables.  He would charge the other kids $.50 for peas, $1 for carrots, $2 for broccoli, and so on, and that is where the little boy had mad all his money.  So the little boy said to his parents, "you were right, discipline does pay off."

Give thanks !

Hi Cullen! This is Lola. As a little boy, you have this wonderful world, to face. It's not a perfect world but you can make it as close to perfect by doing the right things. As you grow up, your little brother, Caeden, will look up to you. As a big brother, you can teach him the simple ways of being thankful. You are so lucky to have parents that love you and will do anything for you. They are God's gift to you. Some kids out there have no Mom or Dad, to protect them, to hold them and to comfort them. There will be times you might not agree with your parents and it is okay to voice your opinion in a respectful way. This does not mean also that you are right. Listen to your parents as they have your best interest in their hearts. In times of confusion, pray to God for guidance and always turn to your Mom and Dad, as they will be there for you always.
Thank God everyday for all that you have. God so love little children.
Love, Lola

Life advice

Here is something that I saw the other day on ESPN from coach Herm Edwards.  Coach Edwards was talking to the top quarterbacks in the nation and he gave them a bit of advice for when they became famous and had lots of money.  Cullen you are 18 months right now and Caeden you are still 3 months from being born, so I am not sure what each of you will end up doing in life, but I just pray that you are happy and find your place in the world.  Regardless of what you end up doing, the advice that Coach Edwards gave is fitting for life.  He said to follow three rules.

                                   1.)  Whatever you do, do it with Passion.

I have been in a position a couple times with my jobs where I just didn't feel the passion and it will wear you down and make you unmotivated, almost lifeless inside.  I have also been in a job that I really loved and it didn't matter how many hours I worked or how stressful the job was, because I loved the work I was doing.  Everyone wants to be great at something, and I believe that greatness starts with a passion and from that passion will come greatness.  I know that this will be hard to do, but don't worry about money or success at first, find something that you love to do and I promise you that you will have all the money and success that you want.  So regardless of what you do, I will always be proud of you, but just have Passion.

                                    2.)  Nothing good happens after 12 a.m.

I have never heard of large business deals or loves of your lives discovered at 12 a.m.  In fact it is usually the contrary, because it is usually ends with career limiting/ending moves and relationship mistakes that happen after 12a.m.  You are going to get peer pressure to do some crazy and dangerous stuff throughout your life, and your mom and I can't be there at every decision making point, so fall back on what we have taught you about morals, values, and most of all common sense.  I read on a poster in one of my elementary classes once, that "what's right is not always popular and what's popular is not always right."  Don't fall into the crowd to just fit in, we will teach you to be leaders and to stand up for yourself and to stand up for what is right.  Know and embrace who you are and what you stand for because, the old saying goes, if you don't stand for something then you will fall for anything.

                                                    3.)  Buy one of everything.

When you become successful, don't spend lavishly, even though society is going to tell you that it is good to have all the toys.  We live in an materialistic instant gratification society, where we must have what we want right now.  Teach yourself to have delayed gratification and that will keep you out of alot of financial trouble.  The scary thing about this is that usually people have to learn this the hard way, and this may be the situation that you two fall into, but learn from that mistake.  Life would be dull if we didn't make mistakes, because that meant we didn't take any risk, but insanity comes in when you don't learn from your mistakes.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.  Always remember true wealth is determined by net worth, which simply put is what you own minus what you owe.  It doesn't matter if you make $1 million, if you spend all of it.  The last thing I will say about this is that money should be used to help increase your sense of security, not to increase your happiness.  Find happiness in other things such as relationships, love, family, friends, etc.