Good and bad comparisons (giving some guidance to kids)

Kurt.nzLifestyle, family, community, Personal development

comparisons_kurt.nz

One day, in about 10 years, one of my kids is going to come and ask me why we don’t drive a BMW like their friend’s parents do. What am I going to say to that? How am I going to show them the danger of making comparisons like that one? Maybe I’ll tell them of a friend of mine who asked a similar question about 30 years ago. I’ll tell them how hard he worked and how much he sacrificed to get that first flash car. His relationships, a little bit of his integrity, his time. How it satisfied him for about a month until he set his eyes on an even nicer car. Within another month he has traded his in for another, losing a bit on the trade. I’ll tell them how this cycle repeated. And it … Read More

(Book) Growing great families – Ian & Mary Grant

Kurt.nzBooks read, Lifestyle, family, community

Growing_great_families_Ian_Mary_Grant

A well-researched book on growing great families that pulls no punches. It puts the onus squarely back on the parents whilst giving lots of tips. If you read this there’ll be plenty of notes to take and actions to implement once you finish!   1. What is a community? Focus on the need for connection and community – found in a family. Not an individualistic focus. It’s a very secure thing for a child to be born into a family which already stands for something, has values, principals, goals and leadership. It takes a village to raise a child. Truth and love are the bricks and mortar of community. We were designed for connection and belonging. To be part of a team. Make your family a team, able to rely on each other. We bond to things we invest in. … Read More

What are you actually doing right now?

Kurt.nzLifestyle, family, community, Personal development

What are you actually doing right now? A few days ago I was playing on the back deck with my daughter, just stacking toys and pointlessly moving buckets around. As I was doing this I thought ‘I really should be doing something more productive’. And then the question came to me. Why do we feel so guilty when we’re not doing something that can be immediately quantified? I think it’s because we love to immediately measure how we’re spending time. And the easiest way to measure it is by the improvement we see straight away, or the financial reward we get for what we’re doing.   It’s a real struggle to measure our time in other ways, but it’s a very important exercise to go through. We first have to start with what our priorities are. For me it’s my … Read More