When my daughter is asked what it was like growing up with the positive guy, she says, “One word…annoying.” :) My son seemed like he didn’t listen to a word I said. My kids had no interest in my work and I had to pay them to read a few of my books. I never thought they would ever work with me and it wasn’t something I even wanted to happen.
Now my daughter is a speaker on our speaker team and my son works in sales and relationships with our amazing clients. People say you must be proud. Actually I’m amazed at what happened. It was obviously part of the bigger plan for us to all work together because it wasn’t part of my plan.
It’s a great lesson for parents as well. Don’t try to force things. Let things play out. Just keep loving your kids even if they act like they don’t like you during the teenage years. It’s true that more is caught than taught so make sure you are living it so they see it even if they don’t want to hear it.
And the best thing we did as parents was have a weekly family meeting that helped build our family bond and culture!
During the meeting we talked about our family mission statement. We discussed challenges each person was facing and helped each other find solutions. We talked about our one words for the year and how we were doing putting them into practice. I also read something inspirational or showed them a video and we talked about it. It wasn’t easy and the kids complained about doing it but it made a big difference. We certainly made a lot of mistakes as parents but this was one thing we did right.
Now we have family meetings that turn into business meetings and business meetings that turn into family meetings :)
This may not be for everybody but it works for us because we know we are here to work and fulfill our mission.
Lead Positive,
-Jon
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