Last week, one of my nieces posted a video of Ashton Kutcher speaking to his fans as he received a reward. I loved everything he had to say to the young people about valuing themselves and other people in their world. At the end of his speech, he gave this quote:
“Build a life, don’t live one.”
As I pondered on his words of wisdom, I began to think about how important it is for parents and grandparents to teach our children this very important principle in life.
Many people choose to live a life and not build a life. Mediocrity is one of the biggest killers in life and those who settle for the same old same old are only living a life, they aren’t building one.
Our children need to see their parents, have dreams and goals in life. They need to see that we are always looking at ways to grow so we can live life to its full potential and that we don’t settle for mediocre.
If we truly want our children to live strong, confident lives we need to strong, confident lives ourselves. We need to show them how there is always more we can achieve if we make the tough decisions that are required for growth.
What goals have your children seen you set for yourself and how closely have they seen you go through the journey necessary for you to achieve them?
What goals have you set and your children observe you reach even higher than before because you want your life to make a difference and leave an impact like Ashton Kutcher?
It’s amazing when we have celebrities cheering young people on and inspiring them to build a life of value for themselves, I love it. However, this begs the question of how much more impact it has on children when this influence
comes from their parents?
Let’s not leave it to strangers to inspire our children. Rather, let’s be parents that build our lives deliberately. Stone by stone, reaching goals and not settling for mediocre.
My mum always said, “there is more than one way to skin a cat” (sorry cat lovers) if something doesn’t work then try something else. Let’s show our children to believe great things for their lives and just to keep going until our goals and dreams are met as we build our lives.
Too many people just let life happen. They don’t spend time working out what they want from life and don’t come up with a plan to achieve that life. When we build a house, we don’t just let someone else draw up our plans and have any old builder build it for us. We are deliberate, we are involved and it is us who chooses the plans we want. It’s a process that we are deeply involved in, we take what’s in our hearts and minds and release it and let the building begin.
Let’s not leave the life we live to be designed or built by other people or circumstances that really fall short of our dreams and hopes. Let’s draw careful plans that we want to build, put as many rooms and extensions as we like. Then, let’s go ahead and find out what needs to be done to have this life built well so family and friends
can enjoy it.
Your little apprentices are watching, observing and learning how to build a life through everything you do and say. They are learning your building secrets and making them their own. Today I ask, what sort of life are they learning to build? Or, are we teaching them to just live life?
It’s never too late to start building, to step outside of your comfort zone, extend your education, start that business you have wanted to, go to that conference you need to, get yourself a good mentor. Do whatever it takes and put the building blocks into place to build the life you really want and help your children do the same.
Much love,
Susanna
