Hey Dad,
We all celebrate the big milestone birthdays, the weddings, the graduations the new career paths. But it’s the small day to day stuff that defines who we are as Fathers.
It’s unfortunate that you were most likely not there in the moment.
That time you took you kids to the park for an hour, sure you got an amazing picture and posted it on social media as the Dad of the year for spending so much quality Time with your kids. Reality is your kids kept playing in their imagination whilst you scrolled through your phone saying I will come over in a second as you’re slumped on that park bench head down spending more time worry about your childhood friends life dilemma on the gram than your own child screaming for attention.
You finally got a date night with your wife and instead of enjoying the night with a nice dinner and a glass of wine you both kept looking at your phone. Trying to find an escape from your reality and taking in turns of trying to implement small talk in between your scrolling, only to abruptly finish your date night because you want to go get the kids early because it feels like your safe spot.
You go to the gym every day but you never see any results. Everyone around you is crushing goals and chasing dreams. You are on IG reading all the motivational quotes and getting lost in the perfect physiques between sets wishing it was you. But that will be all it ever is a wish. Because your not hungry enough. You are trying to live your life through these insta models. But losing track of having to actually do the work. 60 minutes passes. You walk out of the gym barely breaking a sweat and completing what you could have done in 20min.
You are so called that busy you can’t spend time with your so called best mates. You wonder why they don’t txt you no more and want to hang out. Meanwhile your screen time average has gone up 20% in the last week alone.
You are always acting so busy. Busy with work, home life, renovating the house, working on the car. But you are losing every little moment in life that makes it so special. You really are not that busy. But you feel like plotting around acting like you’re busy makes it ok. You pretend you are present and everywhere but facts are your family and friends feel like they lost you years ago.
You try to live in the moment but reality is instead of waking up in the morning and rolling over towards your wife and your 3 year old that has crept in your bed during the night and hugging them. You roll the other way to the bedside table and see what you have missed over the last 8 hours of sleep. Wondering what notification you need to respond to or what email needs an instant reply.
Your phone has become that attached that instead of chatting to your kids after school you are too busy responding to txt messages. Your reality has been lost. Your children are too young to notice. But you have lost your way and the phone is ruling your life.
Instead of spending an hour with the one you said “I do” to and planning the future or reminiscing on the past you both have your head in YouTube videos and blogs about events that happened 3 years ago. You have just lost another hour that could have been yours together to the darkness of that phone.
You might think the big moments in your life is what defines you. But in reality it’s the small things. The thousands of hours that no one is around for. The thousands of hours that you should have been present but you had your head floating around in a place that isn’t reality. It was an escape.
You really should have been around. But you weren’t. And guess what. Your kids are now 18. Of to college. And 80% of the time you will ever spend with them is gone forever.
You are now looking back going I wish I was more present. I wish I was there more. Regret kicks in and guess what. It’s too late.
So you and your little phone all depressed go and sit in the corner and you look back at all the memory’s. All the big occasions with happiness. But all the small milestones and events are not found. You scroll for the park plays. The beach adventures. The overseas holidays. Where are the pictures. That’s right. I was scrolling on social media. I forgot to get them.
You now become a statistic. One of depression, one of regret. One of failure.
It’s too late.
If you want to kickstart your life and want change through fatherhood. Then stop spending so much time looking at that small screen. Lift the head up and take notice of what's going on in this crazy time we are all facing.
Sure you may not be able to do everything you once did but you can do the majority of things and no matter what restrictions may be in place where you live your kids are still looking to you for guidance, for leadership and to show them the right path.
We have a heap of free education and workouts to get you started at www.thefitdadlifestyle.com
Keep crushing Fatherhood
Leroy.
