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.

Let them decide. When Will Ferrell was in middle school, he qualified for the gifted and talented

after-school enrichment program. So his mom signed him up. When Will found out, he told her there was a

conflict he had signed himself up for square dancing. He could only do one or the other. To a parent,

there is an obvious choice. There's not even a discussion. We know which one will teach more, which one will better their career prospects, which one is cooler. But our kids, they don't know anything about decision-making. They don't know about mental models. They don't know about long-term consequences or second-order thinking. They don't know about weighing pros and cons. They don't know what's

best for them. They only know what they like, what excites them, what they want right now.

But Will's mom put that all aside. The actress and fellow S&L cast member Anna Gastire tells it,

she looked at her son and she said, it's up to you, you decide. And Will chose square dancing.

And that, to me, Gastire said,

sums up why Will is the amazing Will Ferrell. It explained in her mind how Will Ferrell became

one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, and his parents had encouraged and allowed him to do

it. We talked recently about not getting in the way of our kids' primal inclinations.

When they feel appalled towards something,

the worst thing you can do as a parent is to prevent them from going in that direction.

Your job, and it's worth repeating whenever there is a chance,

is to encourage them to be who they are,

to follow their natural inclinations,

to decide what they want to do after school.

Hey, thank you for listening to The Daily Dad Podcast. Leave us a review in iTunes. It helps a great

deal. Really appreciate it. And of course, if you know any other dads who could benefit from

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