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

These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy, by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Can you teach them to give it their all?

We've talked before about Kipling's poem If, which was

written as advice for Kipling's son John. It's a beautiful poem about toughness and virtue, honor,

and duty. But there is one line that doesn't get as much attention, maybe because it's a bit

confusing. He says, if you can fill the unforgiving minute

with 60 seconds worth of distance run,

what does that mean?

Perhaps Kipling is talking about the importance

of giving your all to something, physical or otherwise.

There is an expression in sports about playing through the whistle.

In boxing and martial arts, you punch through the opponent. In

baseball, you swing through the ball and running. They talk about running through the finish line

as opposed to just running to it. It's about completing the action going all the way, you know,

giving 100% or maybe more. This is an important lesson to teach your kids. We don't stop at the finish line.

We have to be able to fill the unforgiving minute. They have to be able to give their all to

something. Life is about bursts of courage and activity, whether it's at a track meet or studying

for finals or struggling to get that couch up the stairs.

These things require all of one's effort concentrated on a single task until it's done or until the clock runs out.

And you can't just talk to them about how this is important.

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