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.

One of the best lines from Seneca is that while we can't choose our parents, we do have the ability to choose whose children we will be.

In ancient Rome, this was even more true than it sounds because it was common for people to be adopted into families.

Seneca's brother, for instance, was adopted by a man named Gio, whose name he eventually took.

And if that name sounds familiar, it's because Seneca's brother is in the Bible.

In any case, this idea is worth thinking about now that you're a parent.

Instead of thinking about who your parents were and using it as an excuse for whatever type of parenting is easiest and most natural,

why don't you think about who you wish your parents were? Maybe it's a specific person, or maybe that's just an ideal

that you've seen in a movie or read about in a book. Maybe it's a combination of the mother of one

of your friends and then someone else who became a father

figure or a mentor to you since. Or maybe it's Mr. Rogers or Miss Frizzle from the magical

school bus. Or maybe it's Socrates and Oprah. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you try to live

as if that is whose child you were and are. We want to eliminate the excuse of, oh, that's just how I was

raised or it's what I saw growing up. Instead, we want to flip it from a rationalization to an

encouragement. I am this way because that's what my parents taught me to be. I'm a great dad because

I had a great dad or dads. I am carrying on the tradition. I am passing along the love

and the lessons I got. You can't choose your parents. They did the best they could, but you can

choose whose footsteps you're going to follow in and in so doing what kind of parents your kids

are going to have.

Hey, thank you for listening to the Daily Dad podcast.

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