What’s REALLY important?
Seems like such as easy question to answer. The average, normal person would quickly say “my kids,” or “my family” or “being healthy” and so on. I bet those answers are about what you came up with when you first read the question too.It’s just that I’m not buying those answers. I’m not calling anyone a liar who recites those quick and easy answers, it’s just that I don’t buy that’s what is really important to most people. Why would I say that? Because their isn’t too much proof to suggest those answers are the truth.
One of my basic philosophies is that your time, your energy and your money go to what is important to you. So if kids and family and being healthy was as important as most people say, it would follow that is where people would focus their time, energy and money. Follow? Well, it isn’t happening. Look around and you’ll see that people are clearly not putting their actions into the important things in life. People are putting their time, energy and money into lots of things but more often than not, it’s the temporary, the mundane, and the instantly gratifying. The ridiculous occupies people’s time, saps their energy and seduces the money from their fingers. And the media helps with that fascination. But I don’t blame the media because they only give us what we beg to see. It’s not their fault they are capitalizing on our preoccupation with the stupid; it’s our own. Watching stupid stuff on television is voluntary participation. No one forces you to sit there and see who the newest stupid celebrity is and what he/she is doing. You choose to do that. People choose to participate in things of no importance and neglect what is really important. I dealt in great detail about this problem in my book, The Idiot Factor: The Ten Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money and Business (formerly titled People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It.)
Are there exceptions? Of course there are so don’t get all fired up and write me a bunch of comments about how wrong I am and how my premise doesn’t apply to you. Fine. You may be the exception. Read this and be satisfied with how none of this applies to you and find some satisfaction in pointing the finger of blame at everyone else.
“I get it, Larry. So what is important?”
Your obligations are important. What does that entail? Your relationships, your family, your bills and other financial commitments, your employment and your health. Don’t just say “of course” to this statement. Look closely at each of these obligations and consider that the word really means that you are obligated to do take care of these things to the very best of your ability. And I don’t mean with your words, but with your actions!
You are obligated to do the job you were hired to do. It’s not important that you be happy or enjoy it, it’s important that you do it. That was the agreement you made when you took the job, so do your job and be thankful you have one because millions of people don’t.
You are obligated to be as healthy as you can so you can live as long as you can and not be sick and become a drain on your family physically, mentally or financially. You owe good health to your family and to yourself.
You are obligated to pay your bills – on time and as agreed to. That is money you gave your word you would pay when the goods or service was extended to you, so pony up and do what’s right. Even though we are in a recession. Even though money may be tight. Pay your obligations before you do anything else. Don’t go to the movies, out to eat, or buy anything other than what it takes to survive; instead, pay your obligations no matter what it takes. That’s the important thing to do.
Here is the most important thing and your biggest obligation: your kids. We are a world in crisis. I know it and you know it too. There is no other decent way to describe it: we are in a mess! How did we get in this mess? The mess happened because we either didn’t care enough to keep it from happening or we weren’t involved enough to know it was happening. Either way, we allowed it to happen. We are to blame. And we have to take responsibility and fix it.
The best, long-term solution to turning our world around is to create a society that knows how to be honest and do the right thing in every situation. No more situational ethics but real ethics based on honestly and integrity. We have to create a society that knows how to earn money, save money, be charitable, invest and enjoy their money as well. We have to raise kids that grow into adults who know how to give their word, mean it and keep it. Who do their job for no other reason than because they said they would. Who know how to treat people fairly and be healthy and take care of the environment. Who become involved in their communities and in their world to fix the problems we face. Who know how take action and work to create change instead of sitting on their butts and griping about the way things are. Raising kids to be and do their best is our obligation as a society. But it is also every parents obligation. To fail at raising your kids and teaching them how to succeed is the ultimate failure as a person. Good parenting is the most important thing any person can ever do. Nothing will make a bigger difference in our world than people raising kids who will become responsible, productive adults.
This message has become my primary focus and my purpose. It is impossible to fix the problems surrounding business and money without addressing the primary cause. I can’t help businesses do better in the future until we create a society that believes in honesty, service and takes their job seriously. It does little good to talk about money and credit obligations until parents teach their kids about how to earn, save, spend and honor their commitments. That’s the problem right now with people and their money, they weren’t taught the things that really matter. That has to change. My work can have no lasting impact on society without going to the source of our problem: bad parenting. That’s why I wrote my newest book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. This message is what’s important for me. It means everything to all of us that we turn our world around and that is clearly not going to happen with the adults we have in charges of our businesses, our schools and our governments right now or in the foreseeable future. Which means, it changes with our kids. It changes with your kids.
I ask that you stop now and take your obligations seriously. How will you know if you are doing that? Measure the amount of time, energy and money you put into an activity and that will tell you whether you consider it to be important or not. Pay attention to that especially when it comes to your kids. Need a guide for doing a better job? Check out my new book, Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults. It’s the most important thing I have ever written. And if it helps you raise a more productive, responsible person, then I have done an important job.
