Parenting: need help navigating?

May 4, 2012

As a parent wanting to give fatherly advice (or motherly) to his children, do you sometimes wish someone would spell it out for you?

Do you wish that someone would give you a guidebook on teaching your kids to navigate life? Then I’ve found a good read for you.

Last month I visited with an old college friend who had published a book called Navigating Life: A Father’s Life Lessons for His Children. He wrote the book for his four grown children and gave me one as I left.

My friend Douglas packed a lot of wisdom into this 95-page book. I wishI had read it when my kids were smaller because it pinpoints principals that should be passed on to kids, even when they are small.

Douglas claims that most fathers want their children to enjoy a better life than they did. They want them to be more well-rounded, more confident, and more successful, and to have meaningful, lasting relationships and strong values that will last a lifetime.

One way dads do this is by passing on the lessons they’ve learned in life, so their kids can sidestep some of the pitfalls, heartaches, and challenges that can get in the way of leading happy, fun and fulfilling lives.

That’s what a lot of parents want, and that’s what Douglas Poole–father of four–has done in this book filled with lessons learned from raising a family. He talks about finding your “north star”, plotting your course in life, choosing friends, finding a marriage partner, and parenting.

To give you a taste, here’s an exerpt from the first chapter:

This is your life. This is your one and only life. Question: What are you doing with your one and only life?

I knew a man once who was bright, witty, and full of so much potential it made others envious. When he was young, people said of him, “He will do something with his life.”

Then somewhere in his early adult years it became obvious that he was underachieving for someone with so much potential. And so people around him began to say, “He could do something if he just applied himself.”

The years passed and now people say of him, “He could have done something if he had just tried.”

His life is a tragic story of unfulfilled potential and unrealized dreams. A story of a life squandered away; a story of settling for less. A story of would have, could have, should have.

Don’t let his story be your story!

Let me say it again. This is your life, your one and only life. What are you doing with your one and only life?

If you are a parent who echoes these thoughts, take a hour or so to read this book. And then pass it on to your kids–high school and up. Good stuff.

Order Navigating Life.

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