He Made Me Proud

A few days ago I sat all 4 of my boys down one night before bed and talked to them a little about discipline.

I took out a blank sheet of paper and on the left side, drew a frownie face – and on the right side drew a happy face.

I asked them – “What does it take during the course of a day – to move from frownie to smiley?

They had some great answers, one of which was, doing things you could be proud of.

That of course, led us into a discussion on discipline and how small choices can add up to big results in our lives over time.

“What’s one area you guys could develop a new discipline in?” I asked.

With a bit of guidance, the topic turned to keep rooms clean including getting the beds made on a daily basis.

I won’t lie – this has been a big struggle in our family over the years.

In our company, we have a goal planning & habit tracking document.

I printed 1 out for each of my 4 boys and helped them to write down their goal, their reasons why, and their new empowering habit.

(This sheet includes check boxes you can use to track your habit – like Darren Hardy suggests in The Compound Effect)

Off they went.

The first couple days went surprisingly well but yesterday, a bit of a snafu with my oldest son Kayden.

He was having a bit of a grumpy spell and when I asked him about his progress on his goal he said: “I don’t care – I don’t want to do that anymore.”

I told him – “Well, that’s up to you but you are the one who will miss out on the benefit of not moving forward.”

In kid terms – I tried my best to explain Jim Rohn’s quote “The greatest value in life is not what you get, the greatest value in life is what you become.”

Then I left him and headed off to bed.

Corene and I had just settled in to watch a show when we heard a knock on our bedroom door.

“Dad, can I talk to you?” came Kayden’s voice through the door.

I get up – walk out and say ‘what’s up buddy?’

“Please don’t be mad but – I didn’t want to miss a day of having you sign my goal tracking sheet. I made my bed and cleaned my room. Can you please come check it and sign off on today?”

🙂

This kid had gotten out of bed at 10 PM – picked up his room and made his bed – so he could stay on track with his new discipline.

I checked his work, signed my initials on his sheet, gave him a big hug and said…

“I’m proud of you son.”