Inspiration for this group of articles (listed below) comes from Jack Canfield’s bestseller - How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. I am taking the principles from the book and applying them to life as a parent.

As a parent it can seem like merely ’surviving’ the day is an achievement in itself. This can make us look inward and lose focus of the bigger picture.

In the book baby-proofing your marriage it said that parenting dependant children is a relatively small phase of your life, if you think about it kids are completely dependant for about five years, dependant for another ten, and slightly dependant for a further five. Most people can expect to live for around 75-80 years, so at most, a quarter of your life is spent having little people (assuming siblings overlap during this period and there are no twenty year gaps!) directly dependant on you. That leaves a quarter for being a dependant yourself and a whole 50% or 40 years to realise your own personal goals.

When you start to think about it like that, a goal of - learn to cross-stitch - is not really going to take that long and you can start to set multiple goals that are more complex or major goals that might take years to realise.

Aim High

A quote from the book;

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

Michaelangelo

Other Articles in the Series:

Compartmentalizing Time
Remember Your Purpose Outside of Parenting

Photo by flickr user Shikhar Sethi