Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom,

and insights from parents just like you all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Your job as a father today is to do one thing. It's to read this poem, which dates back to 1865, and then to think about how to incorporate its lessons into how you raise your kids.

Ignore the gendered language. It was written as advice to the poet's son, because that doesn't matter.

There isn't any child, boy or girl, at any age, who won't benefit from its wisdom.

The poem is If by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.

If you can trust yourself when all

men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. If you can wait and not be tired by waiting

or being lied about, don't deal in lies. Or being hated, don't give way to hating. And yet don't

look too good or talk too wise wise if you can dream and not make

dreams your master if you can think and not make thoughts your aim if you can meet triumph and

disaster and treat those two impostors just the same if you can bear to hear it the truth you've

spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the

things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them with worn out tools. If you can make

one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and lose and start again

at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your

loss. If you can force your heart and nerve and sine you to serve your turn long after they were gone,

and so hold on there is nothing in you except the will which says to them, hold on. If you can talk

with crowds and keep your virtue

...