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.

There is so much we want to teach our kids, so much that fathers are expected to teach their kids,

how to ride a bike, how to swim, how to throw a punch, how to tie a tie, how to read,

how to get up the guts to talk to someone. And all of this is important. Of course, all of this

must be done. But there is a lesson underneath all these lessons that matters more,

and it's a heady one, yet also a very simple one. It might seem pretentious to say that a father

must teach philosophy to their kids, but that's only because philosophy itself has become so

perverted and impractical. The lesson you have to teach them happens to be at the

core of the philosophy known as Doicism, and it's a key to success in life. And it's simply this. We don't

control what happens in life. We control how we respond. Circumstances are not up to us, but our choices and our reactions and our actions are.

They think a teacher is unfair and doesn't like them. Okay, that might well be true. What are they

going to do about it? That's the question. The coach says they're too short to play basketball.

Same thing. They screwed up and failed the math test. There is a bully on the

playground. They only got in to their safety school. Your job is to teach them not to wallow in this,

but to focus on what is next, to teach them to put their energy towards their response, because that's

what's up to them. This is the superpower they have. Nobody,

not even adults, control life circumstances. The best of us learn to come to terms with this

and thrive by making good choices, by never giving up and by always looking to get better.

Teach them that.

Hey, you're listening to a daily dad podcast.

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