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A Letter for the Special Ones

 

Guest articles > A Letter for the Special Ones

 

by: Lisa Earle McLeod

 

Intellectually, you know that other people adore their children. In fact, it’s in your best interest to want people to adore their children. When people love and care for their children, the world benefits. Social science backs this up. People who care about their children make their best effort to educate them and teach them values. They spend their resources to make the next generation better.

But then you have your child, and you honestly wonder why anyone adores those other regular children.

Such is the beauty and reality of parenthood. Your heart tells you that your child is like no other. Your brain tells you that they’re just one more human on this planet.

Your heart and your brain are both right. When my first child was just a baby, I read a line in a parenting book that beautifully captured this duality. The writer said, and I paraphrase: In an ideal world a child is raised to believe they are incredibly special, and they know they are no more special than anyone else. That single piece of advice has guided my parenting journey for over two decades.

My youngest child is about to graduate from high school. On the one hand it seems as though I have lived with my children forever. On the other hand I can’t believe it went so fast.

As the parent of a graduating senior, we’re asked to write senior letters. It’s meant to be a short missive to your child that wishes her well, and reminiscing on fond memories of childhood?

Do these people actually think that this can be done in a single letter? We’re talking about a person who is going to change the world, a person who has already changed the lives of her family, and who through the very existence of her being has brought love and joy into the world in quantities never before experienced by those she has touched. How is a parent supposed to capture that with a letter?

Instead I chose to offer her these three simple affirmations:

1. Know that you are loved

The world will not always like you. The world will most certainly reject many of your ideas. But you should always carry the confidence of love. You are loved fiercely and passionately by people who know your soul. You are loved on your good days and bad, by people who have experienced both. We loved you on sight and we fell even more madly in love with you as your jaggedy, bumpy, amazing self was revealed.

2. Just start

Life is a series of big long projects, many of which will fail. That’s OK, it’s better than OK, it’s great. If you care about something, you don’t need a perfectly scripted end game to get started. Just do the easiest, most exciting part first and the rest will be revealed. People who wait for a fail-safe script rarely create breakthrough developments.

3. Be fully present

Your future is an amazing, uncertain, yet to be discovered journey. Your life – whether you choose to live it on a global or local scale – is a one-time event. Do not miss it. Stay fully awake for the joy, the sorrow, the people, the scenery, and the events, the awful ones and the wonderful ones. Plan for the future, but do not let today slip away from you. Love your life, because you are not going to get another one.

 


Lisa Earle McLeod is a sales leadership consultant. Companies like Apple, Kimberly-Clark and Pfizer hire her to help them create passionate, purpose-driven sales forces. She the author of several books including Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud, a Wiley publication, released Nov. 15, 2012. She has appeared on The Today Show, and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. She provides executive coaching sessions, strategy workshops, and keynote speeches.

More info: www.mcleodandmore.com

Lisa's Blog How Smart People Can Get Better At Everything

Copyright 2016 Lisa Earle McLeod. All rights reserved.


Contributor: Lisa Earle McLeod

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Classification: Development

Website: www.mcleodandmore.com

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
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