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 episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Look, being a parent is hard. It takes a lot out of you. If there's not some

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then how are you going to be the parent that your kids need you to be? You would want your kids

to get help if they were struggling. And when you're struggling, who do you go to for help?

To me, therapy is a great way to do that,

to work through problems, to get a different perspective, to work on your marriage, to work on your

relationship with your own parents. And that's where today's sponsor, BetterHelp, comes in.

BetterHelp is entirely online designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

You fill out a brief questionnaire and you get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists at any time for no

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You have to pick your shots. You ask them to get ready. You ask them to pick that up. You ask them to stop.

You ask them to put away their plate. You ask them not to bother their sister. You asked, you asked, you asked.

Have you ever considered, though, that this might be the problem that you just ask for too much?

Try to count today from the moment they wake up, just how often you are asking them to do things, how many instructions you are giving them.

It's endless, it's obnoxious, it's overwhelming, and so much of it is totally unimportant if you really thought about it.

If someone did that to you, might you start to tune them out too?

Tell yourself today that you're allowed a finite amount of requests. What might you let slide? What might you have them figure out on their own? Save your ammunition. Pick your shots. Spend your capital wisely because it's not just about today. It's about the long term. You want them to listen when they have a choice,

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