It has been in the news lately, that sitting is the new smoking. I get it. Our lack of inactivity is making us weak, tired...
What if we could make all children healthy, happy and successful?
Today’s topic is HAPPY.
Happy is a nebulous term, but as it applies to Great American Child:
Happy is defined as one enjoying the current situation and the future possibilities.
What are the chances your child will be happy most of the time? Zero. If you are doing your job as a parent, your child will not be happy with you or the situation on many occasions. Then why are we stating HAPPY as a goal for your child? We want your child to have a sense of awareness that every situation, although challenging, is an opportunity to learn and grow as a human being. If the goal in life for all of us is continual self improvement, as it is for Great American Child, we should be happy to be given freedoms, be challenged, struggle, fail, start over, learn new things, etc.
In other words…being an American!
What better place to grow up than in America? We all should be happy we were born here (or moved here) and have a chance to experience the world unlike any country on Earth. However, true happiness comes from being self-fulfilled. It comes from accomplishments and excellence. Think of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson in particular, who wrote a constitution with this in mind – that all individuals have the freedom to become great, BUT, if freedom is to be done well, it would be through constant self-improvement. Freedom without the pursuit of greatness is wasteful.
What good is it to be free and not experience what freedom affords us?
Personally, I don’t want my daughter to be happy all the time. There is no learning in constant gratification. I don’t want her to get used to it. I want her to struggle, get bruised both physically and mentally, and overcome because of it. Have you ever been around a child who constantly needs to be happy? It’s exhausting. It’s a juggling act between getting what he or she wants and that child being pouty or depressed because it’s not there. Not being happy takes practice, but it is in this practice that we continue toward greatness.
So, as far as Great American Child is concerned, happiness is enjoying a life in which you are pursuing the best person you can be. Happiness as a parent is seeing your child working toward his or her potential.
Be happy when your child is struggling for you know it will lead to a stronger person on the other end.
What is your idea of happiness for your child?
