Dan Pearce

If you want to change the world, first change yourself, then tell others how you did it. Never demand that people change. Inspire them to change using your own change as an example instead.

Every time we look at the clock, we must learn to feel a sense of urgency. We must learn to realize that __ow_ is happening and will very soon be gone. We must look at the digits on the display and be overcome with an urge to do something before those digits change. Before __ow_ slips through our fingers. We must look at the ink on the calendar and see an immediate opportunity to do something wonderful, incredible, or beautiful.It__ that simple. We need to change our thinking from __hen the number changes_ to __efore the number changes_.

Good fathers, and by that I mean real fathers who are there, have the ability to change almost every social problem we now find ourselves facing. I__ be assumptive enough to say that there isn__ a single type of crime or a single problem so big that it couldn__ be fixed or wiped out if fathers would just step up.

I am far from a perfect dad. And I always will be. But I__ a damn good dad, and my son will always feel bigger than anything life can throw at him. Why? Because I get it. I get the power a dad has in a child__ life, and in a child__ level of self-belief. I get that everything I ever do and ever say to my son will be absorbed, for good or for bad.

Fishing is much less about the fishing, and much more about the time alone with your kid, away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday.

Dads. Do you honestly expect anybody to believe that you can__ find 20 minutes to step away from your computer or turn off the television to play with your child? It has to happen every single day. Do you not understand that children will hinge their entire facet of trust on whether or not their dad plays with them and how involved he is when he plays with them? Do you know the damage you do by not playing with your children every day?

Do we not see the influence we have when we say we believe in one thing, but our children see us living something else? Do we not realize how little we encourage our children to actually decide what they believe, declare what they believe, and then live by it? Whether it__ religion, politics, sports, or societal norms. It is not our place to tell our kids what to think. It is our place to teach our kids to think correctly. If we do this, we need have no fear of what they will decide for themselves and how strongly they__l stand behind it. A man will follow his own convictions to his death, but he__l only follow another man__ convictions until he steps in manure.

Dads. Do you not realize that your child needs to feel your skin on his? Do you not realize the incredible and powerful bond that skin on skin contact with your daughter will give you? Do you not understand the permanent mental connections that are made when you stroke your son__ bare back or rub your daughter__ bare tummy while you tell bedtime stories? And if any idiot says anything about that being inappropriate, you__e gonna get kicked in the face, first by me, and then by every other good dad out there. Touching your child is your duty as a father.

And if you are a mom who has watched your child__ father leave, my heart goes out to you. I also pray that you had no part in it. I pray that you didn__ make it impossible for him while he was there. I pray that you didn__ try and force him to live up to impossible expectations. And, I pray that if he is a good man and he wants to be there in his child__ life that you love your child enough to let him. Even if that seems impossible to you.

Parenting is the greatest pay it forward system on earth. We don't owe our parents anything. We owe our children everything. The same was true for our parents. The same will be true for our children.

Sometimes to be a good parent... You have to laugh when you want to be angry. You have to be angry when you want to laugh. And that is why good parenting is tough.

It__ time we stand up and demand more of the fathers of this world. It__ time we stop buying into their rationalizations and their sorry explanations. It__ time we give our kids a fighting chance.

Saturday mornings, I__e learned, are a great opportunity for kids to sneak into your bed, fall back asleep, and kick you in the face.

Share your weaknesses. Share your hard moments. Share your real side. It'll either scare away every fake person in your life or it will inspire them to finally let go of that mirage called "perfection," which will open the doors to the most important relationships you'll ever be a part of.

I promise you it doesn__ matter what you believe, how strongly you live your beliefs, or how true your beliefs are. Somebody else, somewhere, thinks you are in the wrong. Somebody else, somewhere, thinks your beliefs are senseless or illogical. Somebody else, somewhere, thinks you have it all wrong. In fact, there are a lot of people in this world who do.

Having a religion doesn__ make a person love or not love others. It doesn__ make a person accept or not accept others. It doesn__ make a person befriend or not befriend others.Being without a religion doesn__ make somebody do or be any of that either.No, what makes somebody love, accept, and befriend their fellow man is letting go of a need to be better than others.Nothing else.

What haunts me far more than anything I__e ever done are the things I haven__ done.

Be a little less obsessed with how I live my life and a little more obsessed with how you live your own.