Youth activities can be all-consuming.  Whether it is a sport, academic, or other pursuits, their calendars fill up quickly.  This has the opportunity to value doing over being.  However, it does not have to be that way.  The time spent in these activities can build relationships with others and even provide valuable one on one time with a parent.

It is common for us to compare our lives to others in a negative way.  Thus, Facebook is a painful site for many.  They see happy doing great things.  Meanwhile, their life is dull, boring, and full of stress.  This does not need to be the case.  When you look at how much better your life is than others it can relieve stress and make you laugh in a sad situation.

We all have cameras on us almost all of the time.  Thanks to modern technology, our phones are a great way to capture and even document our lives.  I have seen this with my ever-growing number of family pictures.  Every year we add more year over year and pile up the memories.  However, pictures are just part of the story.  When you capture audio and (better yet) video with audio you can capture complete memories that are invaluable as time goes by.

Many of us spend a good deal of time pursuing perfection of some sort.  We try to look perfect, have a perfect yard, or hit a hole-in-one.  There is nothing wrong with perfection as a goal, but it can keep us from pursuing other, more meaningful, things.  This is important to consider when "good enough" is effectively as good as "perfect."

It seems like mentors are more popular among adults than children.  However, a good mentor can provide your child an avenue for learning they otherwise would miss.  We want to raise them right and teach them all we know, but sometimes ours is not the right voice.  A trusted mentor can get through even when our children are resistant to a message.  This is helpful at young ages, but critical as the kids move into middle and high school.

Everyone and their brother have been voicing their opinion about white supremacy groups and racism.  I guess it is my turn.  This is not a very educational episode.  However, it is a plea for embracing those different from you.  They outnumber you roughly the population of the Earth to one.  I also think that spewing hate back at those that display hate does not serve a purpose.

Success is sometimes a matter of perspective.  Kids have goals and measures of success that often are not practical or safe.  Thus, we tell our children "No" far more often than we give them a "Yes."  This can create a point of conflict or at least some resistance on their part.

Drive and Determination are key indicators of success in every field and focus.  Anything that is worthwhile as an achievement requires perseverance and some level of effort.  However, we can also bail out at almost any point in trying to achieve that goal.  This is where drive and determination come in.  We will encounter stumbling blocks that will either need to be overcome or we can allow them to keep us from success.

When our children get to that age where they have to make decisions about the direction of their life, college is often a factor.  At this point, we have to ask is college worth the time and financial investment?  This has grown to be well beyond a $50,000 question to many families.  Thus, it is worth considering the options.

In a recent presentation by Andy Stanley (https://andystanley.com/) he mentioned the difference between a "How" and a "Wow" when hearing an idea.  This is something I think we can use to program our kids for success.  A simple change in the way we approach all those suggestions (silly and not) that our children toss out can lead them to success.