Dean Graziosi uses his kids' first day back to school to argue you should question rules you didn't create instead of blindly following them. He tells parents to encourage their children to ask questions, even of teachers, and to evaluate which rules actually serve them versus which ones just cause stress.
Hey, everybody. Dean Graziosi, welcome to the Weekly Wisdom. It's an honor and a pleasure to have you here today. So, okay, here's what I want to talk about today as I'm filming this. This is the first week back to school for my little kiddos, Brianna and Brody, first grade and third grade. And this morning, we're sitting around having breakfast, and my little bud, my son Brody, was nervous. He could barely eat. He had butterflies. My daughter was really excited just to see her friends, so. So I went through, and I asked them, I said, what are you most scared about each? And they were like, what if I don't know anybody? Or what if the teacher's not great? And all that kind of stuff. This is their first day, right? And so I got what they were scared of. And I said, is that really anything to be scared of? And they kind of said, no. I said, what are you most excited about? And we focused on what they were excited about. And you're like, why are you telling me this about your kids, Dean? Because there's a reason for this. So we had this great conversation, and then it just hit me. And I promise, maybe I shouldn't be saying this to a first and a third grader, but I said to my kids, I said, hey, couple things I just want to share with you. Question everybody, even your teachers. And I know I've said that to my kids before, and I probably have said it to you before, but my daughter this time, she's like, my teachers, but they're my teachers. I said, yes. I'm not saying be disrespectful. It's always, please, thank you, and with a kind heart and love. But if there's something your teacher says that you don't agree with, you have the right to question. You have the right to come home and research it. Go on Google, ask your dad. Ask anybody. Look and find for yourself. And then I couldn't control myself, and I probably talked to them like they were much older. And I said, also, be careful on the rules that you didn't create. If there's certain rules. I remember a teacher two years ago, my son loves to laugh. And the teacher just didn't like laughter. I never saw her smile once. Everybody, when I went to her class, and Brody would get in trouble for laughing or smiling. And he's just a happy kid. And I feel blessed that when he'd come home, I'm like, I don't care what happened in school. You're not in trouble. In fact, I applaud you for smiling if you were disrespectful, if you disrupted the class. I don't mean that. But that was her rules, not my son's. And I went on deeper. I probably went too deep with a first and a third grader six and eight year old and just talking about how, you know, following your heart, question everything. Other people's rules don't have to be yours. We have guidelines, we have rules, but you don't have to adapt somebody else's. Because the last thing I want is I don't want school to teach my children what to think. That's one of the biggest fears I have about them going to a school, is that schools are designed to show you what to think. I want them to learn how to think. I want them to question and fail. Question and they were wrong. Question, they were right. I want them to try stuff and fail. So when I say that how many of us got taught what to think and were playing by someone else's rule book? That's my message for today. It took a long time to get here and I went through my kids and I asked Mike to throw up a picture of my kiddos just so you could see this is a real, this is my life, this is now. But how many of you have deep embedded rules for maybe a religion that you're not sure you agree with? I know that's a heated topic, but maybe you were brought up one way to look at religion and maybe now you want to have a better relationship with God, but those rules are conflicting. Maybe you were brought up that you need to go to college and get good grades and get this job and have security, but now you want to start your own thing and those rules are colliding. I'm not telling you what rules are right and what rules are wrong or if you should have any rules at all, if you're following your heart. But what I'm sharing is whose rules are you following? Sometimes we go through life stressed as heck. We want the freedom of our own business, our own life, but we're following the rules of our parents or grandparents who grew up in the depression and said, stick with that job and don't give up. You're in a relationship that's just horrific. Nothing. I'm saying if you tried everything, it's just this horrific relationship, but it causes you stress every single day. But you stay in it because maybe some rules tell you that it'd be horrible to leave no matter what the circumstances. I'm not advocating leaving a relationship. I'm just saying what rules in your life are conflicting. I would spend this week analyzing what is stressing you and what rules. Are they yours? Are they given to you? Are they beliefs that someone else handed down to you? And you're comparing yourself and stressing and worrying your life over an outdated rule book. That's my message for today, guys. I'm Dean Graziosi. Thanks so much for watching these weekly wisdoms. I appreciate you coming back here week after week, and I'm taking this wisdom. I hope you share it with friends and family. If you don't have my New York Times best selling books, go to deansfreebook.com that's deansfreebook.com or if you're at dean graziosi.com you can click right up there and get it. I'll talk to you next week.
