Level UP

 Losing stinks. Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who likes to lose.  And, I’m pretty sure that I have never met anyone who sets out to lose. To lose on purpose, you do nothing and just sit there. Where’s the fun in that? Boring. 🥱 Go take a nap - you’ll get more out of it. But losing can be good. Wait. How can losing be good? 🤔 Losing in a game and returning to play again, both in a video game and physical sports, provides the opportunity for players to develop key skills such as perseverance, adaptability, and learning from failure.  These are valuable life lessons that can be learned when playing Rocket League or soccer and returning to play, even though the victory was elusive, gives players the foundation to persevere in tough times. Losing also allows players to reflect on what went wrong and to adapt their strategies for the next time they play. Knowing what doesn’t work will guide players to new ways of doing things in order to become successful...

 Have you been in the car and asked Alexa to give you directions to your destination only to be left in silence? Or, have you caught yourself saying “Hey Siri” and then realized that it’s quiet because your iPad is in a different room? Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant have become integrated into our lives. We lean on them for all kinds of information. We look to them to guide us, tell us what we don’t know, and even confirm things that we think might be true. They’ll even turn lights on and off. 💡 They help us strategize and navigate challenges, too. We know what to wear because they give us a weather report. They remind us of things to do. They help us avoid major traffic issues. And much more. While they are all extremely helpful, we talk to them all the time, and we always have them with us in one way or another, we’ll never really become friends. We can’t have Siri be a mentor. Alexa can’t help achieve a shared goal. Google Assistant can’t engage in moral dis...

I always wanted to be a good parent. Hey, who doesn’t right? I wanted our kids to have the tools necessary to be successful in whatever they did. So, I worked hard to teach them values, morals, skills, and those things that will help them develop into well rounded adults. Really hard. 😓 The emphasis was always on doing the right thing, choosing the correct path, and not wasting time, opportunities, or money. And for one of our kids who was becoming a young adult, I just couldn’t see it. All I could see was time wasted. Time that should have been spent doing something of value was thrown away behind a computer screen with a PS4 controller in hand.  I felt like I was losing time and opportunity. Yeah, I was lost. I’ll admit it. I couldn’t find the right way to teach more, to give more wisdom, to guide better, and to instill valuable life principles. And man, all of this just led to stress and conflict. Everyone in our home could feel the tension. I felt frustrated. I didn’t have a g...