The Theory
The first lesson I want to teach my son is patience. Patience is one of those words you hear people say often but never really have a great meaning for. It seems as if people throw the word around willy-nilly, mostly as a noun telling their little ones to have "some."
Patience is not just something you can expect your children to have, if you, yourself, are not a very patient person. I honestly believe I am a very patient person. I can live a very easy and relaxed life, waiting and enduring as long as I know that it is not all amiss. As long as: profit, the finish line or an outcome will eventually be earned, I will wait or try as long as it takes.
I want my son to have this spirit as well. I want to teach him to be patient. All good things honestly do come to those who wait. I believe that and I want him to as well.
With any lesson, you can not just tell someone, such as my child, that they need to be patient. Life does not work this way. I am sure that if I never explain to him what the word "patience" means or let him read the definition, he would not fully understand the word at all. Yet many parents clamber on to their children for their need to be patient. Do they even know what you are talking about?
A few actual definitions are:
having or showing the capacity for endurance
bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.
quietly and steadily persevering or diligent, esp. in detail or exactness
I want to teach my son by showing my son that good things come to those who wait.
Those who wait are patient.
Those who rush are weak minded and stubbornly foolish.
I believe that if I show my son that you must work towards your goals, one task at a time, that he will see that it takes time and energy to accomplish and finish. I want him to know that no dream is too big and no bar is too high and that he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to, as long as he can have the patience and the fortitude to continue to work towards it.
The Plan
I have decided that a great way to show my son to be goal oriented and patient, is to create a very large goal for us to accomplish. However daunting that goal might seem, I want the finish line to be not an end result but a jumping off point for other goals.
It works as follows:
I want to eventually take my son to the Redwood National forrest in California. I want him to experience larger than life nature. I want him to remember how small he is in this world but how large and powerful his successes can be and how beautiful this world truly is.
I could just put him and I on a plane and go visit the park. Yet what would that teach my son? It would teach him nothing. It would just simply be an easy way to see a destination. Many parents do this. They plan vacations and take their children to them. I do not see the value in that at all.
Instead, my son and I will map the destinations we want to visit. We will chart how far each destination we want to visit is from our home.
The Redwood National Forrest is exactly 2088.49 miles away.
My son and I will walk every day. When we come home we will mark together and keep track of the miles we have walked and the distance we have gone together. Eventually, we will have walked 2088.49 miles together. In time, we will succeed in making that goal. It will take great patience and great loyalty to our goal. Yet we will not rush it. We will not opt out of the process of working for our rewards.
I believe that walking to the destinations will make it much more memorable and much more respected.
I have filled our goal with mini goals to keep us positive and keep us focused on our journey. We will visit many places on our journey to 2088.49 miles away.
Our journey has begun.
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