For those religious Daily Hustlers, I am pretty sure you guys are well aware of the very first rule in the Byrnes household…
NO WHINERS.
As we navigate a little bit of a different time in life, we decided to try something new as a family a few weeks ago…
We all agreed that we would make a conscious effort to hold ourselves accountable for our actions by placing a smiley face on our arm every time we complained about anything throughout the course of the day.
Per routine, I got up early and knocked out 10 miles on the treadmill before meeting the family upstairs for breakfast. Over the next hour or so I was on high alert with my pen in hand trying to catch my kids bitching about something so I could tattoo them up with a smiley face… To my surprise, they were as pleasant and joyful as could be and they gave me absolutely NOTHING to be able to draw on them… Well, Cali did slam her finger in the trash compactor but I gave her a pass because despite a few tears, she took it like a champ!
Just as I was going to go back to my treadmill office to complete my daily 20 mile adventure, Tarah asked if soup was ok for dinner…
“Soup… Again 🤷♂️ Didn’t we just have soup??? Why can’t we just have tacos every night???
Before I even finished my taco sentence all 3 kids jumped on me at the same time…
“Daddy, you’re WHINING!!!!!!!”
Without saying a word or trying to defend myself, I walked my ass over to the pen drawer, pulled out a blue marker and drew a smiley face above my left wrist…
Here I was, the enforcer looking to drop the hammer or should I say pen on the kids, and I was the first one to complain.
So often as parents, mentors or teachers, we give out instruction to the kids, yet the ironic thing is that we don’t always adhere to the rules ourselves… When we screw up, we think it’s ok because we are the leader that is exempt from the rules and we justify our actions by tricking our ego into believing the rules don’t apply to us.
That’s BULLSHIT!!!!
Ironically, there is an Epictetus quote that lives on our black board that reads:
“Don’t explain your philosophy, EMBODY it.”
Damn… I fucking LOVE that quote.
Don’t serve anything you aren’t willing to eat yourself… When we show our kids or anybody else that we are willing to hold ourselves accountable to the philosophy we preach, then and only then will they begin to follow.
By the end of the day, all 3 looked like they had arm sleeve tattoos of smiley faces, but it started with a soup gripe and a little smiling friend above my left wrist 🙂
-EB
P.S. The Let Them Play: A Triathlon Across America documentary is finally here, and it’s the perfect film for a family movie night! Proceeds will not only benefit the Let Them Play foundation, but $1 from each sale goes directly to the COVID-19 Response Fund.
Visit LetThemPlayFilm.com or click the button below to watch now! 📽🍿
