How to be a strong dad

I remember it like it was yesterday. I came home and all three of my “girls” my wife included, were having meltdowns. It’d been tense. I was in school, we’re busy, two kids, mortgage, responsibilities.

You probably know what it’s like—most of my readers are 30 and above.

This time, inspiration struck and I just said let’s just be really calm. The instigator of the meltdown, our 3 year old, finally chilled out after willfully calming our agitation and being calm about the whole thing.

I recall when the first born arrived there was suddenly a whole new weight of responsibility. One of the people I’ve learned from, Patricia Clason, says that life is like a video game in that you graduate to new levels. Having a little one was a new level—and it was stressful. Then 2 years later another one—she came just after I took my marketing final.

Previously I’d always considered strength an external thing. When I deadlifted 435 pounds, I thought I was strong. But looking back, I was actually really weak, at least from a mental perspective. I hadn’t known much struggle, definitely wasn’t “mature in mind” as I recently wrote about with Alan Calvert.

So after that meltdown I really worked on being calm and loving and understanding. In that I’ve found that I’m more strong, even though I can’t deadlift 435 pounds anymore!