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    Eight Points of the Compass: Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life
    Eight Points of the Compass: Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life
    Eight Points of the Compass: Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Eight Points of the Compass: Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life

    By Don Levin

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    About this ebook

    Why are so many people wandering aimlessly through life? Why has there been such a shift in values from generation to generation?

    Facing imminent mobilization during the first Persian Gulf War, a father was faced with these questions as well as the challenge of who would teach his children the attributes that he most valued and wished to pass on to their generation.

    In Eight Points of the Compass the attributes of Integrity (True North), Gratitude, Character, Balance, Commitment, Abundance, Vision, and Relationships are presented in anecdotal fashion so as to make them a lasting and timeless legacy of direction and wisdom for each succeeding generation.

    A must read for every parent.

    Chris Sorensen, author of The Greatest Discovery

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateDec 30, 2009
    ISBN9781467843218
    Eight Points of the Compass: Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life
    Author

    Don Levin

    Don Levin is the President & CEO of USA-LTC, a national insurance brokerage, and has been in the long term care insurance industry since 1999. Don is also a former practicing Attorney-at-Law, court-appointed Arbitrator, as well as a retired U.S. Army officer with 23 years of service. Don earned his Juris Doctor from The John Marshall Law School, his MPA, from the University of Oklahoma, and his BA from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College and the Defense Strategy Course, U.S. Army War College. In his spare time, Don has published thirteen other books in a wide range of genre, as well as countless articles on leadership, long term care insurance, and personal development. Don is very active with his church and within the community, and remains focused on his wife Susie, their five children, nineteen grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and two dogs aptly named Barnes & Noble. A native of Chicago, Don and the majority of the clan now resides in the Boise, Idaho and Northern Utah area. Don may be reached at don@donlevin.com.

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      Book preview

      Eight Points of the Compass - Don Levin

      Don Levin

      Author of Don’t Feed the Bears

      Eight Points of the Compass

      Directing Our Children on the Path to a Better Life

      US%26UK%20Logo%20B%26W_new.ai

      AuthorHouse™

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.authorhouse.com

      Phone: 1-800-839-8640

      © 2009 Don Levin. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      First published by AuthorHouse 12/29/2009

      ISBN: 978-1-4490-3279-1 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4678-4321-8 (ebk)

      Printed in the United States of America

      Bloomington, Indiana

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      To Bailey and all of her cousins: Emily, Brynn, Charly, Aubrey Cara, Lincoln, and Ally.

      It was the birth of our youngest grandchild that was the final impetus to write this book. It had its origins back during Operation Desert Storm when my youngest child was but two years old, and I realized how fleeting time really is and how immortal I am not.

      These eight angels plus those that continue to follow will be the ones to either benefit or pay the price for our successes and failures with their parents!

      3206644.jpg

      Preface 

      Charting a Course

      Over the past thirty years, I have spent the lion-share of my time working....as a parent. It has been, by far, the most challenging yet rewarding endeavor of my life. While I may have spent many hours and days away from my family meeting professional obligations, I have always tried to remember they are my most important priority. Our children are proof that we lived. The Law of Legacy and the success with which our children become contributing adults determines how well we lived.

      Most of my own brood have joined the ranks of parenthood and are experiencing the joys and trials that come with it. I, on the other hand, am approaching a rather significant birthday in terms of milestones, healthcare, and being subject to ridicule by said children. With each passing year, it amazes me how fast my mortality and my legacy continue to pass before my eyes.

      In the course of these passing years -- thirty to be exact -- I have had the opportunity to counsel literally thousands of people in all walks of my life: the U.S. Army, as a practicing attorney, as a senior sales leader in a Fortune 100 company, as a youth leader in church and the Boys Scouts of America, and as a lay minister. Though rewarding and growth promoting, eclipsing all of these roles in importance are the times that I engaged in life talks as a father and grandfather.

      Like most people, I often find myself wondering what my legacy will truly turn out to be. For many years I was always afraid that I would leave this world without having had the opportunity to convey everything that I felt that my kids needed to hear in order to have a successful life. Certainly the interruption that Operation Desert Storm, during the first Gulf War, promised to be in my life was a sobering reminder that Life can change in the blink of an eye, and that we can’t put off until tomorrow what we need to take care of today. The idea that my legacy would have to be in the form of letters or videotape was indeed a sobering one. With that as a premise, I have taken the time for serious reflection and determined what I want my children and grandchildren to know about in terms of what I have learned in the course of my life.

      Since a compass is by definition a device for determining directions, most notably that of magnetic or true north, I wondered what the true north has been in my life. What has been the one thing that has really defined me as the person I am today? Stop. Think about your own true north before I share what mine has been. Do you have it yet? Think some more – it is an intriguing question. Okay, I will share with you that mine has been Honor, or in other words, Integrity. From the time that I was just a wee lad, I remember my paternal grandmother telling me the importance of always honoring our family name. To remember who I am, and that I should never do anything that would dishonor the name. Now a great many things can be circumscribed under the banner of honor. In chapter two, we will address some of those things. Having found my own personal true north, it was just a matter of determining the other three cardinal points of my compass, and the next four points that round out life as I know it.

      I have always tried to teach by example, with kind words and a soft touch, and cannot claim to have always been successful in these endeavors.

      I also believe that it is incumbent upon us to teach the next generation; to provide them with direction, and to illuminate True North for them.

      The lifetime endeavor of raising my children has finally started to produce dividends like a long awaited annuity. When conversations with my children are prefaced with remarks such as: I remember when you were raising me..., Thank you for raising me so right..., or You prepared me well for Life.., those moments indeed become priceless. They usually lead to questions like, Do you think... Is it reasonable for me to expect..., or my favorite, How the heck did you do it with five of us around?

      Perhaps equally as satisfying and a true measure of the degree of success achieved, in terms of conveying these cardinal points, is the comment: I always knew what you would say in any given situation... or Your greatest strength is your diligence...

      I was actually visiting my kids out West when I overheard two of them talking outside my bedroom window, and one asked the other with a chuckle: WWDD – What Would Dad Do? ... When they stopped laughing, they had their answer. It was reassuring for them as well as me that they knew what I would say or do in a given situation.

      As parents we are pioneers and responsible for blazing the trail. It is a sacred privilege to be a parent. We have to be mindful of this great blessing and opportunity and never to diminish or tarnish it by inappropriate behavior. My own dad used to say: I never do anything that I would be ashamed of my kids finding out. I guess that was sage advice, because that is how I have chosen to try and live my life, even if I sometimes observed him bending rules a bit to accommodate what I will euphemistically refer to as situational ethics.

      I don’t profess to have all the answers, but the school of hard knocks, an institution from which I have received a graduate degree, is a place to learn many lessons. I hope that these thoughts will be of benefit to parents new and experienced, young and old, those with questions, and others just looking for some ideas of how to make life a little better for themselves and their posterity.

      Chapter 1 

      If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Direction Will Do!

      The man who starts going nowhere, generally gets there.

      – Dale Carnegie.

      Just as the ancient mariners that sailed the seas long before the advent of GPS and radar relied on the stars and their sextants to direct them to their next port of call, so too is it critical for us as parents to help our children plot a course that will allow them to arrive at the destination of their choice. As parents it is incumbent upon us to utilize our own life experience to help our youth chart this defining course. If we fail to help our children discover their end direction, then all we are doing is helping them to aimlessly sail the seas with no course, direction, or vision, with nothing more than a wish and a prayer that they will ever make port. Unfortunately, this seems to be the developing trend.

      Parents are busy, their kids are busy, and despite the advent of technology designed to make life easier and to provide us with more free time, it appears that easier does not translate into better. Extended lunches, more leisure activities, as well as stops at the local Starbucks or coffee house en route to or from the health club, continue to eat into our discretionary time. Children are being left to their own devices in households where both parents work so as to achieve the socio-economic status that they desire, and are often not available to provide this much needed direction. I would hypothesize that the need for both parents working and bringing income into the household is another indication that our wants have far exceeded our needs, and that these newly found appetites are in turn forcing our children to raise their own expectations. In some ways we are unintentionally creating an entitlement mentality in our children. If one were to ask the kids reared by yours truly, they would tell you that every sentence directed towards me that began with I need was promptly responded to with the question, You want, or you need? While tedious at times, this simple question caused them to re-evaluate their requests as well as their appetites. Today, as adults, they are now in turn living lives of frugality and wisely spending their own money – as opposed to mine.

      However, most families do not operate this way. They don’t distinguish between needs and wants. As a result, the hundreds if not thousands of children that I have come in

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