Day # 24 - It's not wisdom until you share it.

People who have known me for a long time have been asking me what exactly it is I am trying to accomplish. The truth is, I don't know. This is not like constructing a building, where you begin with plans and drawings and models. Sure, I have specific goals related to my career, my income, and my level of productivitiy, but I have no way of rendering a model of what the end result will be. Partly because I know it will be better than I imagine.

I spent the day with my son A.J. yesterday. We went to a reptile show at my hotel and worked for a while. We chatted like we always had and I shared my experience like I always have. My words leave me as experience, he absorbs them as wisdom. For better or worse, this is just the way it is. A.J. will be 18 tomorrow. It's hard to wrap your head around it. Your kids grow up and you grow old and both happen without your permission. We cannot stop the forward march of time, but we can make that time count.

Once you are a parent and responsible for the development of someone other than yourself, you owe it to them to be the best person you can be and the best mentor you can be. Becoming a parent is the best cure for self-centeredness, shortsightedness, and irresponsibility I have ever encountered. So my boy becomes a man tomorrow. I have shared my limited wisdom with him and tried to make him learn from my mistakes even as I know, he has to make his own.

I've often told my sons (my oldest, Steven, will be twenty in September) that their sisters (ages 7 and 4) got a better father than they did. It's not a matter of me loving the younger ones more. It's a matter of maturity, experience, and yes, wisdom.

I am not implying that I am wise. Socrates said, "All I know is that I know nothing." How right he was. There is always more to know and the human factor guarantees that we will always find a way to screw up and that's fine. When our children get a glimpse of our humanity, they learn from our mistakes, and develop the wisdom they in turn will share with their children.

I like to say school is where you go for training, Life is where you get your education. I'd like to think my kids are in life's Ivy League, and that I'm at least a teacher's aide, if not the dean.

Lessons:

- Share your wisdom. You can't take it with you, but you can leave it behind and live forever.
- Accept that you know nothing. Learning never ends.
- Strive to be your best - people who love you deserve it.

Today's Declarations:

- Day by day in every way I am getting better and better.
- I am learning every day. My education has only just begun.
- I will share my experience, that others may benefit from it.

Happy Father's Day to the dads out there. Remember, you are the man your sons will want to be, and the man your daughters will want to marry.

Make this your best day yet. God bless you.

-Adolfo

Start building your Success Library!
Follow me on Twitter
Friend me on Facebook