Who do you want to be?

I've recently become a dad. Next week, it will be 2 months since my daughter was born. 2 months since the most intense and life changing experience I've been through and it's been an amazing journey. Since then, I've been reading and listening more about Stoicism - through Ryan Holiday great content - and how this philosophy from Ancient Rome can still improve and have a great positive impact in our day to day lives. And eventually I stumbled upon his daily newsletter for dad's: The Daily Dad, which delivers great nuggets of wisdom around parenting.

And today's newsletter was talking about choices and how you can't choose your parents, but you can choose which parent you want to be for your kids. Who are your role models? What do you believe in? What are the values you want to pass along? What are some of the things that most people think it's true that you disagree with and want your children to be aware of? If you could choose one thing for your child to learn and carry for the rest of his/her life, what would it be??

These questions are not only about being a dad/mom, but also who you're as friend, professional, son/daughter, husband/wife and all the other different personas you play in your life. And if I were to choose - today - only one or two things that I wanted my children to have is self awareness and kindness. Being self aware will show you where to go in life and being kind will show you how to live your life.

"You can’t choose your parents. They did the best they could. But you can choose whose footsteps you’re going to follow in, and in so doing, what kind of parents your kids are going to have."?