Natalie Dawson

Or three hours.

Whatever that person's goal is with the amount of time that they want to spend being an active parent, being somebody actively involved in that person's life.

But we tend to just use these excuses.

Oh, I have sick parents.

Oh, I have kids.

Oh, I have... And I find that very successful people happen to have all of those oh, I haves.

And many of them, not all of them, but many of them are able to figure out, okay, I'm going to spend this 90 minutes at the hospital fully locked in to my dad right now.

My dad doesn't actually need me for six hours.

My dad needs me for 90 minutes.

That time is precious.

It's blocked off.

I'm making the time for that.

And then outside of that, it is working in order to build the life that you want, because guess what?

Your dad is going to pass away.

If your dad passes away in a year from now, in six years from now, the amount of time that you spent with him needs to be important enough for you to make that time.

And I would hope that everybody makes the amount of time that is necessary for them to feel like they did their job as the child, did their job as the caretaker, whatever the role is.

But at what point are you going to use other people's circumstances to stop you from doing what you want to do and creating what you want to have?

And...

For the parent who is very intentional with their kids and doesn't use their kids as an excuse, I am all for spending as much time as required for you to be a good parent.

It's that I find that the other side is far more prevalent, which is I'm using my kids, I'm using my family, I'm using my circumstances, I'm using my education, my lack of experience as a reason for why I can't do this thing.