The Lesson We Can Learn from Dogs and Children – Have Fun!

Last night we got dumped on from above, we have more snow than I have seen in American Fork in the past 20 years, it’s awesome. We got a dog for Christmas and when I let the dog outside, he took off. He was jumping, rolling and sliding all over and through the snow, having an amazing fun time.

As I was watching him romp around and disappearing in and out of the snow, I realized there was a valuable lesson to be learned here and that lesson is, ‘Have Fun!’

There are a lot of different chemicals released in the brain when we are doing something we enjoy doing. We also get rid of a lot of harmful chemicals, it’s the perfect symbiotic relationship our body has, and what a great lesson. Have fun, stay healthy.

Have Fun Stay Healthy

This phrase kept going over and over in my mind but it’s true. If you want to be healthy, you must learn to enjoy life and have fun. Don’t worry about being childish, or thinking I can’t do that. Your health depends on it.

I was working with a young lady and she said, “I’ve never been able to be a kid.”

This was one of the saddest statements I have ever heard, “Never able to be a kid.” It sounds like a death sentence and truly it is, it’s the death of child and fun, if you let it be. Her circumstance was because of extreme abuse as a child into her adult life, she had to grow up way to fast. After working with her for several months, I received the best gift ever since I’ve been mentoring and she said,

“I think I can be a kid for the first time in my life.”

– Mentee (Name Confidential)

Grow up, what an awful term, why would we ever want to grow up? When we grow up, our bodies start shutting down, we stop having fun and enjoying life.

Go out today and have fun, do something you want to do, not because of anyone else but because you want to do it. If you don’t know what you would want to do to have fun, start creating a list and enjoy the discovery as you do things on that list to see what you like to do.

Have Fun, Enjoy Life!

If it’s difficult for you to have fun because of your past, let me help you move on from your past and into the future that you deserve. A future of fun, laughter, joy, and immense pleasure.

You’re amazing, believe it!

Truth is a Fallacy

What is Truth, Does it Exist?

The longer I am around children, I have realized that truth is a fallacy and so I asked my self, “What is Truth?”

I can already hear you saying, “Wait! Tony, that’s not true,” let me explain.

Yesterday I listened to an argument between two of my children, and they started calling each other, “Liar.” I walked out and started to address the situation, and immediately the youngest one said,

“He hit me and took my pencil.”

Then the older child said,

“No I didn’t.”

Big Dilemma

Here’s my dilemma: Who do I believe? Who’s telling me the truth?

Trying to be the best dad possible and trying to be fair, I asked the youngest child to tell me what happened. The youngest child proceeded to tell me all about what happened. However, right in the middle of telling me his story, the older child said, “No I did not. You’re lying.” I turned to the older child and said, “You will get your turn to speak in just one minute, do not interrupt.”

After listening to my youngest child for a few minutes, I turned to talk to the older child, and he said, “This is what really happened.”

His story, although there were some consistencies between the two accounts, it was still different.

Who’s Right? Who’s Wrong?

From what I could tell they both were right, and they both were wrong, so there was no truth.

For each child what they were sharing was their truth, in their mind. They each had their perspective of what happened. The interpretation was different from the event, and so it was impossible to see the “Truth,” so what is truth?

Truth is a Fallacy

Truth is a Fallacy because it would be impossible to get a full understanding of truth because it’s a combination of what happened. When a police officer comes upon an accident, they talk to all of the witnesses, why? They are seeking consistency in the stories because if several people say the same thing, then that confirms this most likely happened.

In my story, the youngest child, in his mind, was just sitting there and the older sibling hit him and took his pencil. However, from my oldest child’s perspective, he was walking by him and sat down and picked up the pencil off the ground.

There could be several versions of truth in this scenario; however, the consistency was, younger child was touched, and the older child had the pencil.

It is important to separate yourself and your emotions from the truth because truth does not exist. Look at your life and some of the challenges you may have; you may say that you were wronged and you’re right. Again, that is your story but what is the other person’s story.

We cannot dismiss that there are two sides to every story and we must be willing to listen to both sides.

True Concepts

The only thing that is true is true concepts. One true concept is that love is universal and we all seek it and integrity are needed.

We all seek love in this life and are wanting to connect and belong to something greater. We are born into this world out of love. As soon as we come out of the womb, we are seeking love, connection with our mother. The desire to be held is instantaneous and does not ever go away.

Once we have love in our lives, we notice the next thing is integrity is apparent immediately. Again, at a young age, are integrity tested, “Did you take this? What happened? Why did you?” The onslaught of questions that immediately test our integrity begin, and if we are honest, we sometimes are punished. The realization comes that if I don’t tell the truth, I won’t get in trouble.

Those young years are critical in forming who we will be for many years to come.

Conclusion

Love and integrity are two true concepts that we need in our life. We can’t have one without the other because if you love someone, you will show integrity towards that person. If you have integrity, you love that person enough to let them know.

Truth is a fallacy and only can be found if we were to gather all of the experiences, and mental state of all those involved, which is impossible. Therefore, love the person as they are. Love yourself and show true integrity in all that you do. Forgive others and allow yourself to grow. When love and integrity are paramount, everything else falls into place.

Tony Rhoton • Mentor and Speaker 801.787.5765

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