Letter to my son

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Letter to my son

Transcript of Letter to my son

Page 1: Letter to my son

Letter to my son

Page 2: Letter to my son

A wonderful placeSon, I never imagined to be in this wonderful place in life, spending my time with a woman I love and two great kids. Life have many twists and turns. It is a roller coaster, sometime you will be up, sometime down, and sometimes coasting for a fast spin. Life really surprise you if you let it.

Now that you are becoming a father, you will experience the most amazing ride of all- seeing your kids grow to become great human beings. I know, it is scary and a big responsibility that makes you palms sweat, your heart rate beat faster, and your thoughts awake at night. There is not medicine for all these emotions. And if there was a pill, it should be banned from the market because it will rob any parent from emotions that makes life all worth while. So to this, following are some lessons learned that I hope can serve you as guidance to quite any fears, doubts, and double guessing if you are doing a good job as a dad.

Page 3: Letter to my son

Instill honorable valuesHonorable Values - This is the foundation that will guide your children when they find themselves standing in front of a fork road. Making taught decisions is hard. Living with them harder, unless they are based on strong values and beliefs. Values are our live compass and the honorable ones makes us a better person - people we trust, admire, and count on. Following are my four most honorable values to sever as life pillars:

•Respect- Above all respect for human beings not matter the difference in creed, social class, education and economic status. This includes their values, believes, and idiosyncrasies. Key to being respectful are exposure, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance. The more we experience other vantage points, we learn more, we understand better, we become more empathic, and a better person.

•Integrity - The short version of integrity is do what you say you will do. In other words, be a person of your word. To this I will add be true yourself - never promise or do something that goes against your values, beliefs, and who you are as a person. It takes a lot courage to keep and be a person of integrity. Life will test your child many times through the years and if you know he is true to himself, you will know, he will be fine at the end.

•Humility- The sense of not feeling above anyone. A humble person is not designated by their income or where they are coming from. The strength comes from the attitude that no matter what circumstance led to where they are in live, they do not feel superior or treat people inferior to their current status. A humble person is one that knows that he can learn from anyone and treats anyone as an equal human being. A man is worth more for his knowledge than for the assets he acquires.

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Teach him to be curiousCuriosity. Knowledge is power, if one has the courage to discuss it, share it, and apply it. Encourage him to go beyond books, formal education and degrees. Instill in him a quest to question and learn from experiences, people, articles, his network, and other sources. Become his mentor. This will be easy at the beginning since children question everything in a journey to makes sense of their world. As they grows older, set believes, rules, norms and accrued knowledge set in, reducing this child quality - curiosity- to question why things and the world works the way it does.

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Build his confidenceBuild His Confidence - Life is made up of different stages and projects/events big and small. And success in any of these endeavor comes from the confidence one have to be able to do or overcome the challenges, specially if they are new. Confidence comes from a can-do attitude and experience of doing things. It builds self-seem, minimizes self doubt, and strengthens positive attitude. Build him up and be his cheer leader, congratulating him on achievements and failures. Teach him that failures are as important as succeeding. That both are part of learning and becoming better.

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Let him take riskMake Him Comfortable with Taking Risks- Experiences is the real life wealth. It provide us with new emotions, learning, and exiting adventures that make our lives richer. It is the adrenaline that keep us moving and fills up our memory bank. However, they don't come without taking some type of risk. In my opinion, avoiding them, make life uninteresting, increases fear, and weakens resolve. A bonus of risk taking - it builds character. Having said this, risk for risk sake is dumb and irresponsible.

Guide him, show him the blind spots, and let it go at it with a watchful eye.

Celebrate his win and loses. Provide comfort and motivate him to continue to fail forward. Teach him to reflect about lessons learned and encourage him to do it again, if it does not do any self harm.

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Be his life coachThe above is not easy to do, specially when you want to be there and protect him for all the thinks you know that can go wrong. He will test you and push your buttons, and at drive you to the wall. However, you know better and instead of anger, be patient, and calm. Think of your own experiences at a particular age and try to understand the intent of his actions. Then reason with him your point of view, and better course of actions.

I hope this helps you in your new journey - parenting.

Love, Dad Javi.