Guest Blog By Loretta Lubera
You have control—and the responsibility—over how your life turns out.
Summer is flying by. Soon it’ll be time to get our kids ready for school again—tackling the seemingly endless back-to-school shopping list.
Some parents are going through the bittersweet phase of sending their kids off to college—and that list is even longer to prepare. Beyond the books and clothes, there is also the need to prepare for dorm life. Their first time being away from the family nest for weeks—months—means needing to create a home away from home, which demands many provisions.
Yet perhaps the biggest worry these parents experience is not merely whether their kids will have clean clothes or proper meals when they are living hundreds or thousands of miles away. They likely are more concerned about their children’s safety, whether they are fostering healthy friendships or making wise choices.
The actual test of the quality of our parenting is when our children leave us. When they take advantage of their independence, test out their wings, and create their adventures. Their choices reflect what we have painstakingly tried to guide them in the years that led up to this point. And when they make mistakes, especially critical ones, it often breaks our hearts because we understand the potentially lasting impact of consequences and know what it feels like to live with regret.
But what if you could foresee the outcome of your life choices— would you choose differently?
I wrote Your Future Is In Your Hands: 22 Keys to Creating A Life You Love Before It’s Too Late because of an undeniable conviction to help empower our younger generation to make good choices, so they can intentionally build a future that brings joy and be a light to others. And one way to do that is to learn from others—their successes and failures.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
This quote resonated with me so much that I put it in the introduction of my book. Mistakes aren’t bad. They are only bad if we don’t learn from them. And learning from mistakes doesn’t mean we only learn from our own mistakes. It’s even better when we can learn from other’s mistakes. It’s almost silly not to and end up recreating the same mistake ourselves.
Your Future Is In Your Hands is a collection of life stories and nuggets of wisdom from people around the world, based on the questions I asked hundreds of people: “What would you tell your younger self if you had a chance?”
In most cases, people immediately had one story to share, and it typically came with a tone of remorse. Why is it that, when given a chance to spend a few minutes with our younger selves, we focus on “what I wish I had done” or “what I wish I hadn’t done?”
As I connected with more people, it became more evident to me that we could change this narrative. We don’t have to simply live with regrets as though that’s our only option. This is even more so for our youths who still have decades ahead of them—if we could equip them to live with fewer regrets and more fulfillment, imagine how much more light they could bring into the world!
The Title Your Future Is In Your Hands carries two meanings:
You have control—and the responsibility—over how your life turns out.
This book encompasses personal stories of feats and failures of people from all walks of life.
These experiences provide a glimpse into what your future could look like if you were to choose similar paths.
I’ve received a lot of positive feedback since the publication of my book. A typical response from people in their 30s, 40s, or even older is that they wished they had this book when they were growing up. This is like “the wise friend” you need to keep you on the right path.
So, parents, whether you are about to send your children off to college or see them off to a new endeavor, do more than simply hope they will make wise choices—equip them by showing them what good and bad choices may lead to.
Help them have confidence that their decisions will lead to wholesome outcomes for their future. So, looking back, they will not be laden with regrets. They can, instead, be grateful that they were set up for success.
Connect with Loretta at www.lorettalubera.com
JOIN US TUESDAY AUG 2, 2023, at 6:30 PM MDT for the Beacon of Light Podcast, where we will take a deep dive into Loretta's book: Your Future is In Your Hands
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