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.

Why not? He was a young man fresh out of the Naval Academy and a stint in the submarine service.

He was being interviewed by Admiral Hyman Rickover for a coveted spot in the nuclear program.

And then he got the question that changed his life.

How did you stand in your class at the Academy? Rickover asked.

Sir, I stood 59th in a class of 820, future president Jimmy Carter answered,

but did you do your best? Rickover asked. And when Rickover could not fully answer, could not,

could not honestly answer that he had always done his best, Rick over simply replied,

why not? And then he ended the interview. As parents, we obviously give a lot. We try hard. We do so much for our kids. We might even say to ourselves in moments when we're feeling guilty or overwhelmed that we're doing our best. And while this reassurance is helpful, is it actually true? How many of us honestly are doing our best? We might be doing pretty good.

Nobody's starving or being neglected, but are our kids truly getting the best of us? Or does our phone

get quite a bit of us too? Is it really the office and our job? Is it actually our office or

our job that's getting our best hours, our most locked-in focus?

As we mold this over, try to be honest about it.

Because Rickover's rejoinder hovers over us.

Why not?

If we know we could do better, if we know there's things we should stop doing, or others

we should start doing, what is stopping us.

When I'm on the phone, I'm walking, in the mornings I take my walk, I'm just always moving,

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