Parenting: 3 Tips for Raising Warriors
Through my work as an author and life coach, I've often met what I refer to as 1 per centers - those people who are living extraordinary lives. They're focused on legacy, and being healthy in all quadrants: physically, financially, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. They nurture healthy brains and bodies, but they always do things just a little bit differently than the rest of the world.
"I'm not just raising kids," one told me. "I'm raising warriors."
This is a tough world.
If you think about your own legacy and what you want to leave behind, what specific hints come to mind?
I want my kids to be warriors mentally, so they aren't easily influenced. I want them to be warriors physically, so they aren't obese, like the majority of Americans who succumb to fast food, heart disease, and other physical ailments. I want them to be warriors financially, so they don't follow the rest of the world into debt, foreclosure, and other problems.
Is that too much for a parent to ask?
Possibly.
But I feel in some small way that they'll stand a chance, if we can just teach them the basic weapons of warfare.
“Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior.” -Karl von Clausewitz
3 Tips for Raising Warriors
1. Guard your Heart
If you can do this one thing, it's statistically proven to guard and protect much of your life. "Guard your heart" means to protect and be sensitive to what comes in to your mind body and soul. This is a sure way to protect your faith, family and finances. Teach your kids how to guard their hearts too.
2. Be Selective
When it comes to your physical temple, your body, be selective about how you treat it starting from a young age. Monitor what goes in and out. Listen to positive music. Eat healthy foods. Don't worry about fitting in, but be the best you can be. How do you teach your kids not to follow the world, or strive to fit in? Teach them to be selectively authentic. Encourage them to embrace their unique interests.
3. Stand Up for What Is Right
Teach your kids how to be empowered. Use role play situations at dinner. Be the bad bully, who says bad words or tries to get your child to do bad things. Why is this necessary? Because it's a real life situation they'll face, every year at school. Teach your child how to use words that work. Teach them how to say NO loud and clear, how to resist when things go bad.
Warriors, have courage. Teaching your kids to be strong, courageous, and empowered, is the best legacy you can give them.
Tammy Kling is a life coach, advocate for the homeless, and international author of 29 books including The Compass. She's the mom of two boys, an avid trail and mountain runner, blogger, and adventure travel writer.
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