17 life skills every parent must teach their kids before they leave home:

My oldest child went to college last year.

My second will leave home in 10 months.

As a parent, you fear that you failed to prepare your kids for life on their own.

Preparing well for anything starts with covering some of the basics.

17 simple life kills your kids must have:

How to do laundry:

When my daughter got to college, she texted me the first weekend.

"Thanks for making us do our own wash."

She had just spent an hour teaching four people how to sort and wash their laundry.

It's hard to succeed in life wearing dirty, smelly clothes.

How to save and spend:

Schools don't teach financial literacy.

You've got to teach your kids how to handle money.

Growing up, I got a small allowance.

10% was put aside for giving.

10% for savings.

The rest was tracked on a simple ledger.

Small habit. Big, lifelong payoff.

How to introduce yourself:

Your kids will spend their lives making first impressions.

Make sure they know (and practice) the basics:

- Firm handshake

- Look the other person in the eye

- Speak their name clearly

- Repeat the other person's name

- Finish with a pleasantry

The Paradoxes of Desire: 🧵

The Pain Paradox

Desire creates pain in our lives.

But living a life void of desire is equally, if not more, painful.

The Intensity Paradox

The more intensely you desire something, the harder it seems to attain.

If you don’t desire something with enough intensity, you never do what's required to attain it.

The Risk Paradox

We desire comfort, security, and safety.

But nothing we desire can be obtained without risk.

The More Paradox

We are driven by a desire for "more."

When we get it, it's not enough.

Parents have to choose their battles.

8 fights worth picking with your kids:

Parenting is hard.

We're all figuring it out as we go.

One of the most difficult things to sort through is when to take a stand,

And when to let up.

There's no magic formula for figuring this out,

But these are a few things I've found worth squaring off with your kids over.

The Reading Fight:

Make your kids read.

Of my four kids, one was a natural reader who always had a book in his hands.

For the others, it was a fight.

But it's a fight worth picking,

Because reading is tied to everything from cognitive development to the ability to focus.

My wife teaches ACT prep and works with students on college admissions.

Of all the tips, tricks, and hacks she can provide, there's one thing she says she can't overcome ⏤

A kid who didn't read.

Make your kids read now.

They'll thank you later.

The Outside Fight:

Make your kids go outside.

The natural world teaches us things.

Valuable truths like:

- There's a way things work that I must adapt to (because it won't adapt to me)

- There are things I have no control over

- There are cycles and seasons to life

There are many things in life you try hard not to remember.

But there are others you can't afford to forget.

Here are 11 of the most powerful:

Time Heals

The burden you're carrying today will be lighter tomorrow.

The wound you incurred last week won't hurt as bad next week.

The shattering setback from last year will be a lesson learned next year.

Get through today and let tomorrow do its job.

Hope Helps

Hope is risky.

It feels safer to live without it.

If you don't hope, you can't hurt.

But hope shapes a vision of a better future.

It gives you the ability to endure and keep going.

Don't surrender to the safety of despair.

Struggles Shape

The idea of a life free of difficulty sounds ideal.

Of course you're drawn to it.

But it's in the struggle that you are forged and formed.

Challenge, discomfort, adversity - these are what your soul needs for growth.

Don't escape them. Embrace them.

Work Wins

Under Augustus Caesar, the Romans adopted a motto:

Labor Omnia Vincit ⏤

"Work conquers all."

When in doubt,

Put your head down and get to work.