Contrarian Kids
Things I want to teach my kids before society teaches them something else.
I want to have a boatload of kids. I’m thinking 5. I used to think I wanted 10 but then one day I saw a dog walker walking around with 10 dogs on leashes and I realized that’s how I would look as a parent if I successfully created the 10 children I wanted. Two words to describe the dog walker that day: stressed & disheveled. Not the lifestyle we are looking for. So I decided to scale my target back. 5 seems like the perfect number. Enough to form a family basketball team, a family band, we can all fit in a sprinter van, plus a higher chance that one of them becomes rich & famous and returns the fund.
That being said I’ve started thinking about how I want to raise all these little munchkins. It feels weird to think like a parent because I still feel like a kid, but for whatever reason parenting has started to pique my interest. As I was brainstorming how I might raise my mini Flickmans I came up with a list of things that I’d like to teach my kids EARLY before the world tries to teach them something else. And I’d like to share that list here.
Also, side note. I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife right now so these plans are still several years out as I’ve heard that one of those is necessary for kid creation. But I digress, here is my list.
MINDSET: The most important thing I’ve learned thus far is that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you interpret it. Your mindset and your perspective become your reality. Once you realize your mindset controls your reality you become empowered and incentivized to work on your mindset.
THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE / SUNSHINE / WATER / SLEEP: I heard a quote that went something like this the other day: “If you could take a pill that had all the benefits that exercise and good sleep have, it would be the most used pill in the world.” - unknown. This is so true. I’ve really been working on getting better sleep, exercising, standing out in the sun more, and drinking more water. It’s incredible how great these things can make you feel.
HOW MONEY WORKS: I think it’s a shame how little we learn about money in school given that we are going to spend the rest of our lives using it as a tool to create the lives we want. I’d love to give my kids a solid run-down of what money is and how to use it.
DON’T OUTSOURCE YOUR THINKING: As soon as you start going to school you will be fed a bunch of different narratives and opinions that might dissuade you from thinking for yourself. It’s important to give yourself time to think and to DYOR so that you can make your own informed decisions.
SELF-AWARENESS: Self-awareness is an important piece to building the life you want to live. If you don’t know what fills up your cup it’ll be hard to optimize for those things. Everyone will try to feed you prescriptions but you are the only one who has an accurate gauge on how you’re feeling.
Let me know what you think of this list and what things you think are important to teach kids early on. And if you’ve already raised some kiddos, tell me, what were some things you focused on trying to teach them early on?
I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time,
Flickman