20 Guiding Principles to Share with Your Kids

Want to give your kids the best chances in life? One powerful way to do that is by sharing meaningful experiences and important principles with them. By doing so, you’re not just imparting knowledge; you’re sculpting their character, equipping them with vital skills, and guiding them along the twists and turns of life. As Louis L’Amour, the American novelist, said, “Knowledge is like money: To be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”

Here are 20 key principles to pass on to your kids:

1. Practice doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it wrong. Make experience your best teacher.
2. Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned. When people don’t learn from mistakes, their mistakes often turn into bad habits.
3. Personal responsibility can’t be delegated. If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, don’t blame the mirror.
4. Treat feedback as a gift rather than as a slap in the face. Some people think that if they don’t know their faults, they don’t have any.
5. Mistakes don’t make you a failure but beating yourself up makes you feel like one. Failing one time — or even several times — doesn’t make you a failure any more than losing one game makes you a loser.
6. A great reputation is earned every day. When you’re not around, your reputation will speak for you. After all, you can’t run from your shadow.
7. It’s not what you have, but who you are that counts. You gain respect by proving that you’re worthy of it.
8. Some people work hard to make their lives harder. Is stress inflicted on you — or created by you?
9. Being a perfectionist is far from perfect. Hold yourself up to a high standard, not an impossible one.
10. Requesting help is beneficial but be careful it doesn’t become an addiction. Be strong enough to stand on your own two feet, but wise enough to know when to ask for help.
11. People will test you in small ways before trusting you outright. When you exaggerate a story, you weaken your credibility.
12. Greatness isn’t determined by the number of promises that you make, but by the ones that you keep. A good intention is like an idea that you keep to yourself. If you don’t do something with it, it’s like it never existed.
13. It’s not what you give, but rather that you give. You don’t have to be rich to give; your gift can be as simple as a smile.
14. Living beyond your means is a high price to pay. When you run out of money –– stop buying.
15. If you appreciate what you have, you’ll never want for more. Most people are so busy chasing things they don’t have, that they fail to appreciate the things they do.
16. Jealousy zaps energy. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, chances are it’s getting better care.
17. Money is only one form of wealth. Money can buy things, but it can’t buy everything.
18. It’s so easy to lose sight of the things that you can’t see. Some of the most precious things you possess are your honor, your dignity, and your reputation.
19. Don’t believe everything you think. If it won’t matter in a year or two, it’s not worth the worry.
20. If you don’t believe in yourself, why should others? At the end of the day, if you’re not proud of who you are and the way you choose to live your life, little else matters.

Check out 21 Lessons Every Parent Should Share with Their Kids

What Other Principles Do You Share with Your Kids?

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Additional Reading:
The Greatest Gift Parents Can Give Kids
Critical Lessons That They Fail to Teach You in School
25 Ways to Screw Up Your Kids
Are You Preparing Your Kids for the Real World?
15 Ways to Pass Your Values On to Your Kids
5 Powerful Truths for Raising Well-Adjusted Kids
My Kid the Superstar

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