No matter how much we try to shield them, children, today are bombarded with so many harmful influences.  We have to teach them values and inspire greatness.

The truth is that we can’t live in a bubble, nor is that ideal. Despite our best efforts, they will be exposed to dark and negative things.

The best we can do is to strengthen their immunity and give them tools to fight dark influences.

In other words, it’s not about hiding them away from the world, but rather about giving them the power to thrive in it no matter what they encounter.

One simple yet extremely powerful way I do this is to display “Life Manifestos” in my home.

I learned this idea from my friend Stephen Palmer, who has created a company that creates typographic “manifesto” posters. The manifestos are designed to inspire greatness. They are constant reminders of cherished values and noble ideals.

When I saw Stephen’s manifesto’s I had to buy all of them and become an affiliate! They are each sooooooo good. They inspire ME!

As soon as I put one on the wall, my children start reading them. They read them out loud, and I catch them lying about the room, dreamily staring at them. I know the messages are sinking into their conscious and subconscious minds, which will then impact their choices, actions, and habits.

Family is Family

The Family Manifesto reminds us that friends come and go, but family is forever. It helps us work as a team. When we mistreat each other, I remind us that we’re “Team Wilson,” that we’re best friends. It makes each of us feel valued and appreciated, which gives us more confidence.

The “Live Extraordinary” Manifesto gives short but power-packed rules for living an extraordinary life. For example, “When you’re discouraged, forget yourself and uplift others.”

The Entrepreneur and Producer manifestos teach us to never be content with the status quo — to dream and innovate to make the world better. They prove a case in point with what I am trying to do with my blog and online business. These manifestos teach my children to reject the entitlement mentality that is crippling America and to take personal responsibility for their actions and choices. Most importantly, they teach them to trust their intuition over peer pressure and their own fears.

There is a brand new Leadership Education Manifesto that was just unveiled at the last Thomas Jefferson Education Forum in Salt Lake City. It’s so new, I don’t have it yet…but I will 🙂  Here I am with Stephen at the Forum.

The sun was so bright, you can’t see the whole thing, but it’s awesome! All of the manifestos were on display. You can see them up close and read the exact words used on Stephen’s website.

These manifestos are definitely part of my home education curriculum. Over time, the messages will become engrained into the minds of my children, and the values and ideals they’ve read over and over will come to them at critical points in their lives.

As a result, they’ll make better decisions, they’ll strive to achieve more, and they’ll see through deceptions more easily.

No matter how we choose to educate our children, we should be looking for as many ways to inspire them as possible.

So I’m curious: If you were to write and display a manifesto for your children, what would it say?