Parenting: How to Raise Good (and Safe) Kids These Days
This is a question that all parents ask themselves…constantly. There are no easy answers and, realistically, there is probably not one single answer. The important thing for parents is to at least ask and try to answer the question for their own family. My wife, Sarah, and I are still early in the game of raising our own two daughters. Though I’m the author of four parenting books and considered a parenting expert, I’m not going to pat myself on the back for my own parenting until our girls have left for college and I have clear evidence that my child-rearing ideas actually work (though, admittedly, even then, it could be my wife’s good genes or just dumb luck if my daughters turn out okay). In the meantime, when I meet parents who have actually gotten the job done and done it well, I like to ask them for some nuggets of wisdom that they believed contributed to raising good and safe kids. I recently ran into a long-time friend and colleague, I’ll call him Steve Barnes (he asked that I not use his family’s real names). Though accomplished professionally beyond pale, he says that his greatest achievement (in collaboration with his wife, Debra) has been raising his two daughters, Eva and Annie. Now in their early 20s, they have achieved a great deal academically to this point (Eva graduated from an Ivy League school and Annie is currently attending the same), but what is notable about them is that they are simply fine young women: intelligent, thoughtful, engaged, and compassionate, just to offer up a few descriptors. Having known them both since they were young, I can attest to the fact that Steve and Debra did more than a few things right. During our recent visit, Steve was kind enough share his nuggets of wisdom with Sarah and me.
Read MorePsychology: Fear, Gloom, and Panic, Oh My!
In a recent post, I suggested that our survival instinct, which has served us so well for so long, may now be failing us. Why? because the reactions that arise as part of the fight-or-flight response are often no longer effective in a world that is far more complex, unpredictable, and uncontrollable than that of […]
Read MorePsychology: What is the Best Emotion?
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about what I thought was the worst possible emotion. There are certainly enough worthy aspirants including hate, anger, and sadness. But I felt regret was the winner (or should I say loser) because its causes can’t be undone, it slowly eats away at your soul, and it […]
Read MorePsychology: Is Our Survival Instinct Failing Us?
The human instinct to survive is our most powerful drive. Since animals climbed out of the primordial muck and as our early ancestors rose from all fours to walk upright, evolution has been guided by its ability to help us survive and reproduce. Just about everything that humans have become serves that essential purpose, in […]
Read MoreYouTube Channel: Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child
I just uploaded a 60-minute talk to my YouTube channel on Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child that I gave recently at the Stevenson School in Carmel CA. To learn more, visit my Prime Family and Speaking Topics web pages.
Read MoreYouTube Channel: Prime Business: The Psychology of Spectacular Success
I just uploaded a 60-minute talk to my YouTube channel on the role of psychology in business performance that I gave recently at the Transamerica Leadership Forum in Minneapolis. As a featured speaker for Natixis Global Assessment Management, the 14th largest assessment management firm in the world, I regularly speaking to financial-industry and other business professionals […]
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