We’re so intentional about our careers—crafting five-year plans, monthly goals, to-do lists, and annual reviews. We track milestones and push ourselves to continually level up.
But when it comes to the people we love, there’s a tendency to just wing it. To assume a successful family, marriage, or relationship will somehow happen on its own.
In his new book, What You’re Made For: Powerful Life Lessons from My Career in Sports, the Hall of Fame basketball coach George Raveling reminds us that we need to put as much thought, effort, and strategy into our families as we do our careers. “In the game of life,” George writes, “the most important team we’ll ever be a part of is our family.” Like any great team, it needs structure, it needs shared goals, it needs everyone to know their role. You wouldn’t expect a business to thrive by chance. A team doesn’t come together just because. The same goes for your family.
As George advises,
“I believe that more families could benefit from clearly defining each member’s role and openly discussing these roles. How many families actually sit down together and ask, ‘How can we be a better family? How can we be more productive? How can we help each other live better lives?’ These are crucial questions that often go unasked. Just because a family lives under the same roof doesn’t mean they’re living better lives together. It takes deliberate effort, communication, and a shared commitment to improve the quality of life for everyone in the household.”
How can you lead your family more intentionally? How can you help everyone in your household live better lives? What values do we want to live by as a family? How can we improve how we communicate with each other?
These are crucial questions. Let this be your nudge to sit down to come up with some answers.
P.S. George Raveling’s book What You’re Made For was co-written by Ryan Holiday and is more than a memoir from one of the most respected basketball coaches alive (seriously, how many books do you think Michael Jordan writes the foreword to?).
No, What You’re Made For is a manual for life—full of surprising and powerful methods like this to unlock your potential from a man who shaped the careers of so many legends…and has done so much for so many people.
We have copies available over at the Painted Porch. Head here to grab yours today!
