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.

This is a gift to give yourself and your family. Actually, in today's episode, I wanted to give you an excerpt from The Daily

Dad. It's my favorite entry from the book. It runs on today, Christmas, whether you celebrate

or not, I think it's a powerful message. You can grab the Daily Dad 366 Meditations on Parenting

Love and Raising Great Kids, anywhere books are sold, got signed copies in the painted porch. If someone didn't give it to you as a gift, this holiday season, hopefully you'll give it as a gift to yourself. But most importantly, I just want you to listen to today's message. When you were younger for Christmas, all you wanted was presents. Now that you're older, now that you have kids,

all you want is presents. All you want is for your kids to be present over the holidays.

Paul Orphalia, the founder of Kinko's, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. When asked about

his wealth, he didn't talk about buying expensive stuff or building a great company or taking

exotifications. He said, do you know

what success is? Success is when your children want to be with you when they're adults. How many people

have all that bullshit? He said, and their kids don't come home for the holidays. Come on. Success, as we've

talked about before, is having a crowded table.

At the end of your life, success as a parent will be a family that comes together, that spends time together, that wants to be around you.

So here on Christmas and throughout this holiday season, take some time to think about what it will take to have that.

Think about the choices you're making with your kids now,

so they'll choose to fly from their homes to yours when they're older and have families of their own.

Think about the gifts that you have to give them today, your love, your support, your presence,

to receive the gift of a crowded table in the future. And anyways, if you know someone who needs

to be a little more present this year,

maybe nudge them with a copy of the Daily Dad or a stillness is the key. And credit to Noah Kagan,

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