by Rich Patterson | May 1, 2019 | Parenting
Taking Time to Parent It sounds kind of funny to say, take time to parent. But often, we get so busy trying to keep everything going that we forget to take some time with our kids to have a simple unstructured conversation, ask some fun questions, and hear their...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 29, 2019 | Encouragement, Parenting
Praise Your Kids Sometimes we get so busy criticizing our kids, you know, trying to keep them on track, that we forget to praise the great kids they already are. Parenting can leave you feeling overwhelmed just in and of itself, let alone when you add in all of the...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 26, 2019 | Parenting, Personal Improvement, Resilience
40 Assets for Youth – Internal Assets In the previous two blogs, I discussed the 40 Developmental Assets for Youth from the Search Institute (www.search-institute.org). In the last blog, we discussed the External Assets, and in this writing, I will discuss the...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 24, 2019 | Parenting, Personal Improvement, Resilience
40 Assets for Youth – External Assets In the previous blog, I wrote about the 40 Developmental Assets for Youth and explained how they developed, researched, and organized the assets. In that writing, I said that the assets appear in two categories, External...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 22, 2019 | Parenting, Personal Improvement, Resilience
40 Assets for Youth The 40 Developmental Assets for Youth are the work of the Search Institute (www.search-institute.org). They are 40 research-based positive experiences and qualities that influence young people’s development, helping them become caring,...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 19, 2019 | Encouragement, Personal Improvement
The Seasons of Life In his book, Today Matters, John Maxwell speaks about the value of recognizing the seasons of our life. He reminds us that our life has seasons that are representatives of what has come before. He writes about three seasons: Learn, Earn, and...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 17, 2019 | Communication, Personal Improvement
Focused on Improvement My mentor John Maxwell says, “Poor thinkers are slaves to their thoughts.” I have written about tending to your thoughts in many different ways. Still, this quote brings to our attention the importance of focusing on getting better,...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 15, 2019 | Communication, Family & Relationships, Parenting, Resilience
Talk About the Positives As I look back on my life, I realize that most of what I was concerned about either didn’t happen at all or that everything turned out fine, even if it wasn’t as I wanted it to be. We can commend ourselves for choosing the...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 12, 2019 | Character, Personal Improvement
Heart Is The Center Your heart is your center, not your brain where all the chatter is; protect your heart because it flows your destiny out of it. If you are struggling with forgiveness, past wrongs, why did this happen type thoughts that are in your heart? They...
by Rich Patterson | Apr 10, 2019 | Encouragement, Personal Improvement
Defending Yourself Does life sometimes feel like this lighthouse? Waves are crashing into you, trying to pull you down and causing you to struggle with life. When this happens, we often feel like we need to defend ourselves against others, but in reality, we do not...
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