friendships |

If you have a good friend, especially one that has been around for a long time, that is a very special feeling and privilege. For some they may have a friend that they had from some of their schooling days – whether it is primary or college days. As the one saying goes “To have a good friend, you must be a good friend.”

So we want our children to develop those sort of friendships that last a long time. In fact it is with those sort of friendships that middle and high school are going to be easier to navigate. It is not about just being popular, it is about healthy relationships between two individuals.

Developing friends and keeping them does not come easily for all children or adults. So what should you do if your child is having trouble making or keeping friends? We will spend some time this month looking at ways we can be a good friend and how others are good friends to us. Continue reading “Friendship: Qualities of good friends”

Each one of us play out a number of roles in our daily life. It does not matter if we are 5 years old or 55. Think about it – if you are 5 years old you could be a sibling, student in school and one or two extracurricular activities, grandchild, friend, and you may have been asked to be responsible for something in your church or other social group.

If you are a teen and adult it just multiplies. We have our roles at work, friendships, citizens, students, family and more. Each one makes demands on us that we find ourselves making commitments to and promises. At time we feel stressed because in trying to be ‘dependable’ we may feel stretched too thin and may even feel like we do not have enough free time for our selves.

If we are going to be dependable and keep our commitments we must first be balanced and moderate in the things we promise. One of the things that always surprises me is how much time a task takes that I thought would take so much less time.

So in fact it is about time management and priorities. If we want to be a powerful leader we must only make promises that we are able to keep. Here is a quick hint I received from something I read recently.

Write down what you need to accomplish the next day – the night before.
Choose the 3 most important things that will have the largest impact on your business, life or family
Tackle the biggest and hardest one first thing in the morning and stay with it until it is complete.

You will feel great about it and be able to do the other items easier, knowing that big one is complete. More on time management later. If you are going to be dependable though, it is most important to know when and how to say no and not to overload yourself.