The Ultimate Team – A father and his son

Saturday I was in my sons room. He was asked me to come look at his Lego creation. He absolutely loves playing with lego and builds some incredible things. For some reason, I’m not a Lego guy. I’ll ride bikes with my son, play soccer, play in the tree fort, play hide ‘n seek, heck, I’ll eat a dirt pie before playing Lego. For some reason, this question popped out of my mouth “when are we going to build something out of Lego?” To which he responded, “You are always busy.” Ouch. The truth hurts.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to take an interest in things one may or may not enjoy doing to build a relationship. Sometimes it’s important to do something that your son (or daughter) enjoys even if you aren’t good at it, don’t like it, or don’t know how to do it. My new mentor is a guy named Dick Hoyt who started running because his son, born as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Since then, the have competed in marathons, triathlons, climbed mountains and trekked 3,735 miles across America.

Rick said this about his father: “Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working.”

Read more about Dick and Rick Hoyt at www.TeamHoyt.com here and watch an incredibly inspiring video about them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10). Lego anyone?