SECRETS OF A HAPPY FAMILY ....part 2

Happy Family Secret No. 8: Build and Honor Rituals

"Families need rituals,. Rituals can be religious, national, or even family-specific,

"Happy families have meaningful rituals and are not stressed out by them," she says. "They can be unique to your own family such as going for bagels on Saturday morning, a weekly pizza night, or even a family song. Rituals tend to bring family members close together because they are repeated over time."
 

Little Habits that Steal Your Happiness

You ultimately become what you repeatedly do.  If your habits aren’t helping you, they’re hurting you.  Here are a few examples of the latter that will steal your happiness if you let them:

1.  Focusing on everyone’s story except your own.

Don’t be so satisfied with the success stories of others and how things have gone for them that you forget to write your own.  Unfold your own tale and bring it to life

SECRETS OF A HAPPY FAMILY

Happy Family Secret No. 1: Enjoy Each Other

The essence of a happy family is that they truly uplift each other and that all comes down to how they treat each other, "Parents come home and the kids are happy to see them and when kids come home, the parents are happy to see them."

THE DILEMA OF THE FIRST BORN. part 2

The Responsibility

As FIBI, you are expected to be the next authority figure in the house. When the parents leave, you are expected to be the ‘man of the house’ or ‘woman of the house’.You are expected to be in check of your siblings at all times. And if they do not behave, you are the one to take the blame. All this on your small head. As FIBI, when you get a junior brother or sister you are expected to nurture them as well. You are supposed to be the ‘third parent’ of the kids. 

Make sure to curb your instant reactions to things that make you highly emotional—whether it is good or bad. Sure, it’s OK to be yourself and show enthusiasm. But remember that good leaders and well-respected people know the difference between responding and reacting. The latter is not a good habit.

THE DILEMA OF THE FIRST BORN. part one

This post goes out to all firstborns in African households. By firstborn I mean that you are a first child in that family (the first to be born), and as a first child there are things you go through that other children just won’t understand, Others will not feel your pain, 

Ways You Can Earn The Respect Of Others

You want to be respected, but you’re not sure how this whole thing works. The key here is to stop focusing on you, and start thinking about others. How can you help others? How can you inspire change, growth, and innovation? When you think about the people you respect deeply, what do they do differently from the average person? While you’re thinking about that, here are some of my own tips

Overcome Low Self-Esteem (part2)

Learn to say no. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Often we say yes because of the fear of authority, the fear of hurting someone’s feelings, or worries that we will let someone down. But every time you say a yes that you don’t mean, you’ll end up doing a half-hearted job. And then you are unhappy that you said what you didn’t want to say, and you are unhappy that you did such a lousy job of what you said you would do.

Overcome Low Self-Esteem (part 1)

“Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.” 

You’re smart, funny, and genuinely good at heart.

You have ideas that could solve many of the problems you see around you. You could regale people with interesting stories that crack them up. You could be the perfect partner, parent, or friend.

Lessons in Manhood

1. Accept death with open arm

If death isn’t feared but instead welcomed there’s no limit to what you can accomplish and what you’ll aim to accomplish.  We not only fear death but we fear the unknown and injury and failure and for shite’s sake we need to stop, and the end will start when we bring our greatest fear into the present.