2 things I will teach my future kids

I have very strong views on parenting. I know, I know…this is exactly what people want to hear from a non-parent.

And yet – IDGAF!

I’m not ashamed to say my parents did an awesome job raising us. And I had the unique perspective of being raised with Indian values in American culture.

From talking to millions of people who want to change their lives, I’ve started to think about how I’ll apply these insights to parenting one day.

Here are 2 things I will teach my future kids:

1. PERSEVERANCE: HOW TO FOLLOW THROUGH

This is one of the TOP 5 PROBLEMS that people email me about. It’s unreal how many people just simply don’t follow through on anything they start. And they know it and hate themselves for it.

I have people who email me, telling me how tired they are of starting something and never following through. In the VERY SAME EMAIL, they pledge to “finally get it together” so I challenge them with a very small action step and tell them to email me back in exactly 3 days.

I never hear from them again.

I’ve spoken with thousands of these people. When they actually reply, the patterns are identical:

They were smart as kids. They didn’t try very hard at school and still did well
Parents complimented them for how smart/great they were
Once they encountered real challenges (typically, college-level academics and the lack of structure of the real world), they began to fail
Having never failed before and built coping skills, they panicked, got stuck, and here they are

You can find their stories here: How Do I Stop Being So Damn Lazy? (tweet this)

These people explained that they used to love how much “freedom” their parents gave them, but they now wish their parents had pushed them and forced them to learn the skill of discipline.

This is why I laugh when people tell me “all I want for my kids is for them to be happy.” Kids get happy eating 5 bags of Skittles. That doesn’t mean you feed it to them.

2. HEALTHY FOOD HABITS

When I talked to people about their eating habits, a shockingly high number told me that each meal is “like fighting with a demon” (real words from a reader).