Hello Fathers,
In the hopes of keeping myself accountable, I promise to update daily on the progress of my happiness project. For reference, here is a link to the Happiness Project Post, details out my plan. As I explained in that post, you are going to fail, and fail often, accepting that will be a challenge for me, as I hate to fail. But fail I did… but I didn’t give up.
It isn’t easy keeping positive thoughts when your job is usually a giant problem to solve and what feels to be 1 step forward 2 steps back, any of you feel like that? Then you leave work and you have young children trying to understand their world, often patience is short from a full day of stress… You have a wife who has dealt with young children all day and wants an adult to talk to. So, I tried something new.
I took a breath, stepped outside let the sun hit me and said thank you! Just that simple thank you gave me a calming sense. I smiled at my wife and told her she was beautiful (she is!) and looked at the kids and said give dad 5 minutes of free space to rest my mind, then I’ll play. It hit me, this isn’t just a once a day project, it is an every single second of the day project, so it is okay to fail. Did you know, Michael Jordan was only a 50% shot maker, so he failed as much as he won on his shots, and he is the greatest to ever play (sorry Lebron, not sorry)!
My words of wisdom for today, is breathe, allow yourself to fail, don’t beat yourself up when negative thoughts come in, but try like hell to replace those negative thoughts with positive ones, don’t linger in pessimism. I failed plenty today, but I also won plenty. It is a long war, don’t lose sight of the end goal, happiness and freedom!
Here are some other resources of others trying to find happiness:
- https://happinessproject.com/
- https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Project-Morning-Aristotle-Generally/dp/006158326X/ref=asc_df_006158326X?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80470559181329&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584070138374040&psc=1
- https://the-happiness-project.com/
Real Fatherhood 
Thank you for this post. I have talked about failing a lot in my posts sometimes it’s good to know you aren’t alone. I think that is one of the big battles we fight not only as men but as fathers, is that if people knew what I thought or did they would be ashamed or hate me. The truth is, fatherhood is hard, especially if you didn’t have that father or male figure to help you. You are thrown into it and told to figure it out. We all fail. I fail daily. Like you said, the important part is realizing where your blessings are. Taking that deep breath and telling yourself that my failures don’t define who I am as a person, a man, or a father.
I heard a pastor says once that God knows what you have done but calls you by your name. The devil knows your name but calls you by what you have done.
Thank you again for your post and I hope you have a great day tomorrow and rest of the week.
Respectfully,
PR
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