I was seven years old when I decided that no one would ever get to my heart again.

By that point, I’d already been carrying more than most adults could bear. I’d lived in the orphanage since I was three years old, abandoned by parents who were too broken to raise me — though nobody would tell me that. All I knew was that my father had “hurt his brain” and my mother was “sick,” and that someday, maybe, the doctors would fix them and I’d get to go home. That hope was the only thing keeping me together.

In the meantime, I was dealing with what every orphanage kid deals with. The older boys in the dorm who took out their own pain on the smaller ones. The kids at public school who said things that cut deeper than any punch — “You must be so bad even your parents don’t want you.” I could handle a physical fight. I didn’t know how to handle words like that. None of us did. We just started swinging, which meant the principal’s office knew my name well.

But what finally broke me wasn’t the bullying. It was the moment I gathered everything I had, went to a family member I loved and trusted, and begged them to take me home. To adopt me. To choose me.

And they said no.

That night, I fell apart in a way I never had before, and in the midst of all my hurt and grief I made a vow: the big boys could beat me until I cried from physical pain. The school kids could throw insults that stung like razorblades. But no one was getting to my heart again. No one. I was going to lock it down.

My dorm mother noticed the change immediately and started me in weekly counseling, because she understood something that too many caregivers miss: a child who suddenly stops acting out isn’t a child who has finally calmed down. A child who stops feeling is a child in serious danger.

I lived in that shut-down state from age seven to seventeen. Ten years. And in the decades since, working with at-risk kids in orphanages, juvenile prisons, and on the streets across 40 states and multiple continents, I’ve seen it play out the same way in child after child. I know what it looks like from the inside. And I know what it takes to reach a kid who’s gone there.

What Emotional Flatlining Actually Is

Emotional flatlining is what happens when a child has absorbed so much pain, abandonment, or trauma that they make a decision (conscious or not) to stop feeling altogether. It’s a survival mechanism, an emotional lockdown. And from the outside, it can look like peace.

The child isn’t throwing chairs anymore. They’re not picking fights or slamming doors. They’re no longer hurling insults and sneaking out. Instead, they’re sitting on the couch, watching TV, playing video games, scrolling their phone for hours without complaint. To a tired caregiver, that can feel like progress.

But it isn’t. In fact, it’s many steps in the wrong direction.

Why the Quiet Kid Is Often the Most Dangerous One

The child who is acting out is a child whose pain you can see. It’s disruptive, but it’s readable. You know something is wrong, and you can respond to it.

The shut-down child is not releasing pressure, they’re containing it. Every unprocessed emotion, every unanswered question, every wound that no one ever acknowledged… it’s all still in there, building quietly. They are a pressure cooker with no release valve, and when it finally gives, the explosion will make the kids who were acting out look like angels.

But here’s what makes it even more serious: when you emotionally flatline, you don’t just numb the painful things. You numb everything. The good feelings go too. Joy, hope, connection—all of it gets locked out along with the grief and the rage. I didn’t just stop hurting during those ten years. I stopped hoping. I stopped imagining a future worth wanting. And when a child loses their sense of a life worth living — not just for themselves, but for others — you are one step away from a sociopath. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what my dorm mother understood and why she got me into counseling at seven years old.

This is why reaching a shut-down child is not optional. It’s urgent.

How to Help a Child Open Up: Three Things That Actually Work

If you’re trying to figure out how to help a child who won’t talk about their feelings, I need to tell you something first: talking is not where you start. Pushing a shut-down child toward an emotional conversation before they’re ready will drive them further in. What works is less obvious and requires more patience than most people are prepared for.

1. Use Their Name — And Mean It

This sounds almost too simple, but I’ve seen it matter more than people expect. When you use a child’s name, not as a correction or a command but as a genuine acknowledgement, you’re sending a message their defenses have a hard time blocking: I see you. I know you. You have not slipped off my radar.

I grew up feeling invisible. I was one of sixty-four kids with a hundred people at every meal, and yet I was nobody. When an adult used my name with intention, it cut through in a way that long conversations couldn’t. It reminded me, even when I didn’t want to admit it, that I mattered to someone. For a shut-down child, that recognition is the first crack in the wall.

2. Get Them in Motion and Keep Them There

Stop trying to get these kids to talk about how they feel. Start getting their bodies moving instead.

Screen time looks harmless. It might even look like a healthy outlet. But for an emotionally flatlined child, it’s just another form of numbing. They’re not connecting with anyone. They’re not processing anything. Every hour in front of a screen is another hour the pressure cooker is running with the lid on tight.

Get them off the couch. Take a walk. Go get ice cream. If they love movies, take them to the theater but make it an intentional outing, something the two of you do together. Teach them to cook something simple. Take them fishing. It doesn’t need to be profound. It just needs to be a real, shared activity with a person who shows up consistently.

I’ve watched this progression happen slowly, over months. At first, the kid resists. Then they grudgingly go along. Then one day, when someone asks what they’re doing Saturday, the answer shifts from “some goof bucket wants to take me fishing” to “my buddy Jim and I are going fishing.” That shift, from enduring to belonging, is the beginning of reconnection with a child. And it almost never starts with a conversation.

I’ll say it plainly: love is a four-letter word spelled T-I-M-E. Kids like us don’t care how much you know until we know how much you care. Get us in motion. Show us you won’t let us disappear.

3. Hold Space Without Forcing It

When a shut-down child finally starts to open up, every instinct tells you to push and ask more questions, dig deeper, make the most of a rare moment of openness. I’m telling you: don’t.

The fastest way to shut a child back down is to make them feel like their vulnerability is being managed on your timeline. If they sense that sharing with you comes with pressure, or follow-up questions they weren’t ready for, or an adult who can’t sit quietly with hard things, they’ll close back up, and they’ll be harder to reach the next time.

What actually helps a child open up about their feelings is a safe, steady presence that doesn’t flinch. Acknowledge what they’ve shared. Protect their confidence like you mean it. Don’t immediately try to fix what they’ve told you. Let the first act of opening up be enough and let them see that sharing with you didn’t make things worse. From there, you can gradually offer more support as trust deepens. But they set the pace, not you.

This Work Is Slow. Do It Anyway.

Reconnecting with a child who has emotionally shut down is not fast. I spent ten years in that state. What eventually reached me wasn’t a single breakthrough moment. It was a series of adults who kept showing up, who refused to let me be invisible, who made me feel like a normal human being worth spending time on.

If you’re working with a shut-down child right now, know this: your consistency is doing something, even when it doesn’t look like it. Keep getting them in motion. Keep using their name. Keep being the safe place that’s still there when they’re finally ready.

The pressure cooker needs a release valve. And you can be that if you’re willing to wait for them to trust you with it.

For years, all I knew was that my dad had “hurt his brain” and my mother was “sick.”

That’s what the adults told me. That’s all they told me. And so I did what any child does with incomplete information: I filled in the rest myself. I decided that someday the doctors were going to fix my dad’s brain. Someday they were going to make my mother not sick anymore. And when that happened, they’d come get me, and we’d finally be a family.

Every single day I waited for that call. Every day it didn’t come was its own agony.

What I didn’t know (or perhaps, what I should say is what nobody told me) was that my father had put a gun to his head and spent the next 26 years in a mental hospital unable to chew his own food or remember where the bathroom was. What I didn’t know was that my mother was in and out of lockdown psychiatric wards, that she was on the streets of Chicago and she was never going to get better. They just said she was sick, so I kept hoping.

The day I finally understood the truth, that they were never coming for me and that the family I’d been waiting for didn’t exist, was the day something in me broke. And it was also the day I came to a conclusion that would shape the next decade of my life: every adult I’d ever known was a liar.

That is what silence does to a child.

The Assumption That Silence Is Kindness

I understand why caregivers held back. When you’re working with a child who has already been through so much, the instinct to protect them from more pain is natural. You think: they’re so young. This is too heavy. They don’t need to know all of this right now.

But these kids already know something is wrong. They know their situation isn’t normal. They know the adults around them are being careful with what they say. And when children have questions with no answers—about why they’re in foster care, about what happened to their parents, about why they’re separated from their siblings, about what’s going to happen in their court case, etc.—they don’t sit quietly with the uncertainty. They let their imagination fill the void.

And what children fill that void with is almost always worse than the truth.

All kids are egocentric by nature. When life is good, we assume it’s because we’re good. When life is rotten (and for kids like us, life was rotten) we assume it’s because we’re rotten. We assume we did something to deserve it. That we must be so broken, so unlovable, so fundamentally wrong that even our own parents didn’t want us. Kids at school said it to our faces: “You must be so bad even your parents don’t want you.” And without the truth to counter it, that becomes the story we tell ourselves.

Protecting kids from the truth doesn’t protect them from pain. It just hands them a pain they have to carry alone, without context, and without anyone to help them make sense of it.

What Silence Really Teaches

When silence hurts children, it rarely looks like an obvious wound. It looks like a slow erosion of trust.

In the orphanage, I wasn’t the only one starving for answers. Every kid in that place was carrying questions that nobody would touch. We all knew the adults knew more than they were saying. And when you’re a child and the adults around you keep deflecting or keep giving you half-truths and careful language, you don’t think, “They’re protecting me.” You think, “They’re lying to me.”

And once a child decides that adults are liars, you haven’t just lost their trust in you. You’ve lost their trust in every adult who comes after you. The case worker who genuinely wants to help them. The foster parent who is trying to build a relationship. The teacher who sees something in them. The counselor. The mentor. Every adult who tries to pour into that child’s life now has to climb over a wall that your silence helped build.

Their ability to be helped and to be loved becomes less and less likely. Not because of what they’ve been through, but because of what they were never told.

The Two Ways Kids Respond to Having No Answers

In my experience, kids respond to unanswered questions in one of two ways, and neither is good.

Some of us had shut down. We emotionally flatlined. We decided that if the world wasn’t going to give us answers, we weren’t going to give the world anything either. We locked the door to our hearts and stopped feeling. That was me at seven years old, and I’ve written about what that costs a child.

Others exploded. The boys I grew up with who couldn’t contain it anymore and resorted to screaming, throwing things, punching walls, and getting into fights that seemed to come from nowhere. But it wasn’t. It was the accumulation of every question that had gone unanswered, every truth they’d been denied, and every time an adult had smiled and said nothing meaningful. Rage was the only language they had left.

Whether they shut down or exploded, neither child was okay. Both of them needed the same thing: an honest conversation with a trusted adult who respected them enough to tell them the truth.

These Kids Can Handle the Truth

I want to say this plainly, because I think it’s the thing caregivers most need to hear: at-risk kids are not fragile. They have already survived things that would level most adults. The truth is not going to break them. It is the uncertainty, the unanswered questions, the carefully constructed half-truths…those are what break them.

What the hard, painful truth does is give a child something to finally orient themselves around. It gives them context for their situation. It lets them stop inventing explanations and start dealing with reality. And reality, however painful, is something they can begin to work with. A fantasy built on silence is something they can only keep waiting inside of, alone.

This is not a call for careless disclosure. But it is a call for honest conversations with kids that are handled with care, appropriate to their age and their capacity, and followed by real support. 

There’s a difference between dumping the truth on a child and walking them through it. The goal is always the second.

How to Have These Conversations the Right Way

Talking to kids about hard things is not comfortable. I’m not going to pretend it is. But there are ways to do it that honor the child without overwhelming them.

Start with what they already know. Before you decide what to tell a child, find out what they’ve already concluded on their own. Ask open questions and listen. What you hear will almost certainly be worse than the truth, and it will show you exactly what gap you need to fill.

Tell them it’s not their fault, and mean it. Before you get into any details, a child needs to hear this clearly and repeatedly: this is not your fault. Your parents were the ones who were broken. You are living the consequence of what they couldn’t do. That is not a reflection of your worth. Say it plainly. Say it more than once. It won’t land the first time, but keep saying it.

Be honest about what you don’t know. One of the most powerful things a caregiver can say to a child is: “I don’t have that answer, and I’m not going to pretend I do.” That kind of honesty, admitting the limits of what you know rather than filling the space with nothing, is what separates a trustworthy adult from a liar in a child’s eyes. If you don’t know, say so. Then commit to finding out what you can.

Stay in the room after. The conversation isn’t over when the words stop. What happens in the hours and days after you’ve told a child something hard is as important as what you said. Check in. Let them bring it back up on their own terms. Be the steady presence that shows them honesty doesn’t mean abandonment, it means you trust them enough to tell them the truth and then stay.

The Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do Is Nothing

I spent years waiting for a call that was never going to come, building a fantasy out of what adults wouldn’t tell me, and then watching that fantasy collapse and taking my trust in every adult with it. I was not unique. Every child I grew up with in that orphanage was doing the same thing in their own way.

The adults who stayed silent thought they were protecting us, but they weren’t. They were leaving us alone with our worst conclusions about ourselves and the world, with no tools to challenge them and no one to trust enough to try.

If you are working with a vulnerable child right now, I am encouraging you directly: tell them the truth. Not all at once. Not without care. But tell them. Respect them enough to be honest. 

Because the silence you think is protecting them is teaching them something you don’t want to teach: that adults can’t be trusted, that they are alone in their confusion, and that no one thinks they’re worth an honest answer.

They are worth one. Give it to them.

Reading changes lives. That’s not hyperbole. It’s something I’ve witnessed over decades of working with young people.

If you’re a parent or work with teens, you know this age group has mastered the art of shutting down. Try to offer advice, and you’ll hear the familiar words: “You wouldn’t understand.” Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. But here’s what I know for certain: sometimes a teen just needs to hear a different voice for the message to cut through the noise.

That’s the power of reading. Books put new stories in front of your kids from voices they might listen to. These stories help teens put words to experiences and emotions they can’t quite articulate yet. When they see parts of their own story reflected in someone else’s narrative, when they watch characters navigate impossible situations and come out the other side, something shifts. They realize they’re not alone. They see that their current circumstances aren’t set in stone.

Reading does something else too. It builds empathy in ways that lectures and advice never can. When your teen spends hours walking in someone else’s shoes through a story, they develop compassion for people whose experiences differ from their own. They learn that pain is universal, even if the details look different. They discover that resilience isn’t about being perfect or having all the answers. It’s about getting back up and trying again.

Now, as a father of two and grandfather to six (and counting), I know getting kids to read is no small thing. We’re competing with smartphones, social media, and a thousand other distractions fighting for their attention. The trick is finding books so compelling that your teens forget they’re “supposed” to be reading. These are the rare stories that make them beg for “five more minutes” to finish just one more chapter before lights out.

I recommend these books to any teen, but especially those who feel lost, lonely, or misunderstood. These stories will inspire them and show them they aren’t stuck where they are.

Castaway Kid by R.B. Mitchell

My story isn’t pretty, but it’s real. Abandoned as a toddler and raised in an orphanage for fourteen years, I grew up believing I was unwanted and unlovable. This book doesn’t sugarcoat the hard parts. It chronicles my journey from abandonment to building a life I never thought possible: a marriage of 45+ years, a family, a multi-million dollar business, and a purpose bigger than my pain.

The truth is, your past doesn’t have to dictate your future. The labels people put on you as a kid don’t have to stick. You can choose differently. You can break cycles. You can build something beautiful out of broken pieces.

For your teen if: They struggle with feeling abandoned, unwanted, or think their past defines their future. If they need to see that broken beginnings don’t determine final destinations. If they need proof that you can overcome what was done to you or perhaps they have done to themself, and still become someone worth knowing.

A note for youth workers: I give away free audiobook versions of Castaway Kid to teachers, youth pastors, counselors, and anyone working with troubled youth. Just reach out to me at info@rbmitchell.com and we’ll make it happen.

Get Castaway Kid here.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Thirteen-year-old Conor is visited by a monster at exactly seven minutes past midnight. As he navigates his mother’s terminal illness, the monster tells him three stories and demands a fourth: the truth Conor has been too afraid to face. This is a devastating, beautiful exploration of grief, anger, and accepting the contradictions of being human.

Grief is messy. It doesn’t follow rules or timelines. This book gives teens permission to feel the hard things, to be angry at someone they love, and to hold two opposite feelings at the same time. It meets them in that darkness and says, “You’re not alone. What you’re feeling is human.”

For your teen if: They’re dealing with loss or impending loss. If they need permission to feel angry and scared and confused all at once. If they need to know that having dark thoughts doesn’t make them a bad person.

Get A Monster Calls here.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

It’s 1967, and seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood is convinced his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. While his classmates attend religious instruction on Wednesday afternoons, he’s stuck reading Shakespeare with her. What unfolds is a year of unexpected lessons about courage, family, and becoming your own person in a world that seems determined to define you.

This book is funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. Through Shakespeare’s words, Holling learns about betrayal, loyalty, love, and what it means to be brave when everything feels scary and uncertain. He learns that the adults who push you hardest are sometimes the ones who believe in you most.

For your teen if: They feel misunderstood by authority figures. If they’re trying to figure out who they are apart from what everyone expects them to be. If they need to see that growing up means making your own choices, even when those choices disappoint the people you love.

Get The Wednesday Wars here.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and her younger brother are torn from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and deported to Siberia. Based on true events, this is a story of unimaginable suffering, fierce love, and the stubborn refusal to let circumstances destroy your humanity.

Lina loses everything: her home, her freedom, her father, nearly her life. And yet she keeps drawing, keeps hoping, keeps loving her family fiercely. She discovers that even when everything is stripped away, you still get to choose who you’ll be in the darkness. This is a hard read, brutal and heartbreaking, but it’s also a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

For your teen if: They need perspective on their own struggles. If they need to see what real strength looks like when everything is stripped away. If they need proof that hope can survive even in the darkest places.

Get Between Shades of Gray here.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

August Pullman was born with severe facial differences that have kept him out of mainstream school until now. Starting fifth grade at a new school, Auggie just wants to be treated like a normal kid. But that’s hard when you look like he does. What makes this book special is that it’s told from multiple perspectives, showing how Auggie’s presence affects his sister, his friends, and even the kids who bully him.

The book’s central message is simple but profound: “When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.” Every teenager knows what it feels like to be stared at, judged, or excluded for something beyond their control. This book reminds them that kindness is always a choice, and that choice matters more than we realize.

For your teen if: They’ve ever felt like an outsider. If they’ve struggled with physical differences or disabilities. If they need to learn (or be reminded) that kindness is a choice we make every single day.

Get Wonder here.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

At fourteen, William watched his Malawian village suffer through drought and famine. When his family couldn’t afford school fees, William was forced to drop out. Instead of giving up, he went to the library, taught himself about energy and engineering from books he could barely read, and built a windmill from junkyard scraps to power his family’s home and pump water for their crops.

This book destroys the excuse that you can’t do anything because you don’t have enough resources, education, or support. William had almost nothing. What he had was curiosity, persistence, and a refusal to accept his circumstances as final. His windmill didn’t work on the first try, or the second, or the tenth. But he kept going.

For your teen if: They feel limited by their circumstances. If they need to see what resourcefulness and persistence can accomplish. If they need proof that one person really can make a difference.

Here’s what happens when a teen finds the right story at the right time: they see themselves. Not in every detail, but in the emotions. In the struggles. In the questions they’re too afraid to ask out loud. And when they see how someone else navigated those same dark waters, something clicks. They realize they have options. They realize they’re not crazy or weak or broken beyond repair.

These books won’t fix everything. I’m not naive enough to think a story can solve the complex problems teens face today. But they’ll open doors. They’ll start conversations. They’ll plant seeds that might not sprout for months or years but will eventually grow into something real.

If you want more resources to connect with your teens (whether they’re your kids or the kids you work with), subscribe to my newsletter here on my website. I share practical wisdom and actionable ways to engage with young people who need adults willing to show up and stay. Because that’s what it takes: showing up, staying present, and giving them the tools to navigate a world that can feel overwhelming and impossible.

Get The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind here.

It’s usually around this time of year when people realize they’ve really fallen off the train with their New Year’s resolutions. You started January with the best of intentions. You were motivated, energized, ready to finally change. But by March? You’re back to the same old routines and the same bad habits.

I’m not judging, because I’ve been there. But I also don’t subscribe to the belief that people can never really change. I think the people who peddle that belief aren’t passing judgment on others. They’re actually just limiting themselves and telling you what they think they’re capable of, which isn’t change.

I’m a firm believer that anybody can change. We can break our bad habits no matter how severe they are and no matter how long we’ve had them. The key is knowing how to approach it, creating a plan so you can sustainably eliminate those bad habits, and having the right motivation to keep you going when things get tough or when the novelty wears off.

As somebody who has personally overcome a lot of bad habits (and I mean a lot), today I’m sharing some of my tried and true tips to create sustainable change and break your bad habits once and for all.

First, Let’s Talk About Bad Habits

Before we dive into the how, we need to understand something about bad habits.

Having bad habits doesn’t make you a bad person. The best people I know have bad habits. Whether it’s biting your nails, overthinking situations, assuming you know what people are thinking, interrupting others when they talk, or scrolling social media when you should be working, we all wrestle with something. You’re not broken. You’re human.

With that being said, just because bad habits don’t make you a bad person doesn’t mean you should accept that you’ll always have them. Bad habits are called that for a reason: they’re bad. However big or small they are, they impact your life in a negative way. But you don’t have to live with them forever. You have the power to break them.

Here’s the thing about bad habits: they’re a lot like muscle memory. Your brain is a muscle, so the more you use certain pathways in your brain, the stronger they become. The longer you have a habit, the stronger the urge to repeat that habit becomes. This is why breaking a bad habit is really, really hard. But it will be that much more satisfying and rewarding when you do.

My Tips for Breaking Bad Habits

Tackle One Habit at a Time

Write down all of your bad habits and then list them in order from “easiest to break” to “hardest to break.” Instead of tackling them all at once (which is overwhelming and sets you up for failure), focus on overcoming one at a time, starting with the easiest.

You’ll gain a lot of self-confidence by overcoming one of your bad habits, and then you can use that momentum to tackle the others in a snowball effect. Small wins lead to bigger wins. Trust the process.

If you want help with this, I have a free tool that can guide you. It’s called “Your Change Map” and it helps you lay out everything you want to change and then put them in the correct order so you can create sustainable change. Reach out to me at rob@rbmitchell.com and I’ll send it your way.

Get Crystal Clear on Why You Want to Break Your Bad Habit

Don’t just say “I should stop doing this.” Dig deeper. How does your bad habit negatively impact your life? Write down everything you can think of. Get specific. Get honest.

For example, if you procrastinate, don’t just write “procrastination is bad.” Write down the real consequences: “I stay up until 2am finishing work I could have done earlier. I feel anxious and stressed constantly. I miss deadlines and disappoint people who count on me. I feel like a failure.”

Then set that list in a place you’ll see it regularly, like on your nightstand or your bathroom mirror. Look at it, especially when you’re struggling to break your habit. Keeping these reasons top of mind will help you stay diligent when your motivation starts to fade.

Start Noticing When You Do It

You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. Identify your bad habit and start paying attention to when it shows up. Do you bite your nails when you’re nervous? Maybe you lash out when you’re criticized. Or maybe you procrastinate your work when you feel overwhelmed.

Start identifying what situations trigger your bad habit. What emotions precede it? What time of day does it usually happen? Who are you around? The more you understand the pattern, the better equipped you’ll be to interrupt it.

Replace Your Bad Habit with a Good One

Something I’ve found really interesting is that it’s a lot easier to “replace” a bad habit with a good one than to just break the bad habit cold turkey.

I would brush my teeth. The tooth pasted gave my taste buds flavor. I had another craving later that night, I would brush my teeth again. In six months I lost 15 pounds, just by brushing my teeth instead of eating late night snacks.

It allowed me to use the energy created by the urge and redirect it toward something beneficial, which helped better satisfy the desire to perform the bad habit. Your brain wants to do something. Give it something productive to do instead of just telling it “no.”

Make It Harder to Do the Bad Habit

We’re creatures of convenience. If a bad habit is easy to do, we’ll keep doing it. So make it harder.

If you spend too much time on your phone, put it in another room when you’re trying to work, better yet, turn it off. The texts and voicemails will be there when you turn it back on. If you eat junk food late at night, don’t buy it at the grocery store. If you skip workouts because you talk yourself out of it in the morning, lay out your workout clothes the night before and sleep in them if you have to.

Remove the friction from good habits and add friction to bad ones. It’s simple, but it works.

Tell Someone About Your Goal

There’s something powerful about saying your intentions out loud to another person. It creates accountability. It makes the goal real instead of just a thought floating around in your head.

Find someone you trust and tell them what you’re trying to change. Ask them to check in on you. Give them permission to call you out when you slip back into old patterns. You don’t have to do this alone, and honestly, you shouldn’t. We all need people in our corner reminding us who we’re trying to become.

Expect Setbacks and Plan for Them

You will mess up. You will have moments where you fall back into the old habit. This doesn’t mean you’ve failed. This means you’re human.

The difference between people who break bad habits and people who don’t isn’t that one group never stumbles. It’s that one group gets back up and keeps going. When you slip up, don’t spiral into shame and give up entirely. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and start again the next day. Progress isn’t linear. It’s messy and inconsistent and that’s okay.

Hope for You

Bad habits can be broken, once and for all. I’ve seen it happen in my own life and in the lives of countless young people I’ve worked with over the years. The key isn’t willpower alone. It’s intention, self-awareness, and a refusal to let temporary setbacks define your permanent reality.

You’re not stuck. You’re not too far gone. And it’s not too late to change, whether it’s March or July or December. Start with one habit. Make a plan. And take the first step today.

I just finished writing about marriage advice for newlyweds, which got me thinking about the challenges couples face. And one of the biggest? Parenting.

It’s one of life’s greatest joys. It’s also one of life’s greatest stressors. Ask any parent who’s been through sleepless nights, teenage rebellion, health scares, or just the daily grind of keeping tiny humans alive and functioning, and they will tell you I’m right.

I raised two kids while building a career and dealing with my own complicated past—fourteen years in an orphanage after being abandoned at age three. My son battled leukemia. My daughter went through her share of struggles. And I had no model for what a good father looked like because the people who should have shown me walked away when I was three years old.

So when people ask me what advice to give new parents, here’s what I tell them. These are the tips for new parents I wish someone had given me—the things I learned about being a good, loving parent despite the stress and chaos.

Children Want Two Things: Opportunities and Boundaries

This might be the most important thing I can tell you about raising kids. Children want opportunities to grow, but they also want boundaries. They need both.

Give them opportunities to explore, experiment, and succeed. But also give them boundaries. Clear ones. 

And here’s the thing: they’re going to test those boundaries over and over again. Not because they’re trying to push your buttons, but because they’re testing them to make sure they’re real. Those boundaries give them comfort.

Setting Boundaries Is an Act of Love

I’ve spoken to kids all over the world in juvenile detention centers, group homes, and crisis centers. You want to know what those conversations taught me? That even the toughest, most independent kids want to know that someone loves them, and what they really needed, going back to what I just said, were boundaries. 

Now a lot of parents don’t want to set boundaries because it makes the child upset. They think, “I love them and I want them to feel good, so I won’t say no.”

But what you’re really communicating with a reasonable boundary that you set and enforce is love and care. You’re saying, “I want better for you than what you’re going to choose for yourself right now.” 

That’s real love. That’s real respect. And through that boundary you’re also instilling self-respect in your child, because you’re teaching them how they should be treating themselves. You’re teaching them to say down the road, “No, I’m not going to do that because I want better for myself.”

Give Them the Opportunity to Talk Openly and Honestly

Now that we’ve gotten clear on the value of providing your kids with boundaries, let’s talk more about giving them opportunities. One of the best opportunities you can give your kid is the opportunity to talk to you openly and honestly.

That doesn’t mean grilling them with questions until you get the answers you want to hear. It doesn’t mean forcing them to tell you things on your timeline and your terms. What it means is giving them opportunities to share with you in a way that feels safe and on their timeline.

Here’s how I would hold this space for my kids.

I remember picking up one of my kids from school, and I could tell they were in a funk. I would ask “How was your day?” and I’d get the silent treatment, or a dismissive “Quit hassling me.”

So I’d drive to their favorite ice cream place without saying a word. “What are we doing here?” “We’re getting ice cream. You got a problem with that?” We’d order, sit down. They might not talk at all.

Then we’d get back in the car, and I’d keep driving further from the house.

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll keep driving till you’re ready to talk.”

“You’re serious?”

“I’m very serious. I’m going to keep driving, and I’ll give you the time and space you need to talk to me and get your words out so they don’t eat you up inside. I’m not going to ask a question. I’m just going to keep driving till you feel ready to share.”

One time we drove for an hour and a half before those words finally came out. Was it important? Not really. It was some junior high boy drama and my daughter was caught in the middle of it. But she got it all out. And when we got home, I said, “I’m sorry your heart is broken. I love you.” And that was it.

Don’t let a kid who’s struggling and shut down just sit on the couch and play video games, or shut themselves in their room and suffer in silence. Give them the opportunity to share with you, openly and honestly. As a parent, you don’t have to have all the words. Sometimes they don’t even know the words to say. Just hold the space open, give them the opportunity to share, and wait for the right moment.

You’re Not Going to Be Perfect

I don’t want to give the impression that I was a perfect parent. I wasn’t. I made mistakes. I lost my temper when I shouldn’t have. I was too strict sometimes and too lenient at others. 

But I learned that parenting isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being present. It’s about giving opportunities and setting boundaries. It’s about paying attention even when they don’t want you to. It’s about doing what’s best for your kids even when it frustrates them.

And it’s about remembering that the chaos and stress? They’re temporary. But the relationship you build with your kids through all of it—that lasts forever.

February gets people thinking about hearts and flowers. I’ve been thinking about 45 years of marriage, which includes some hearts and flowers, but also includes sleepless nights with sick kids, financial stress, personal struggles, and seasons where we weren’t sure we’d make it through.

If you’re newly married or thinking about getting married, you probably don’t need another list of generic marriage advice for newlyweds. You need the truth. You’re not just partners in romance. You’re teammates in life. And like any good team, you’ll have moments when one of you is carrying more weight, seasons when you’re growing at different speeds, and times when you have to pull each other up and work hard to keep pace.

So here’s what I’ve learned about making a marriage last after 45 years.

The Light Ahead of Me

When I met my wife in college, I was a mess. I’d spent fourteen years in an orphanage after being abandoned at age three, aged out at seventeen, and spent the years after that trying to drown my bitterness in everything I could get my hands on. I was angry, broken, and convinced I was doomed to become exactly what my past said I’d become.

But when I met her, something shifted. I knew I wanted to be a better man for her. Not perfect—I was nowhere near perfect—but better. She became a light ahead of me, pulling me forward toward the man God believed I could be instead of the man my circumstances said I was stuck being.

That’s what a good marriage does. When one of you is growing, reaching, striving to become something more, the other becomes that light ahead, helping you walk into it. And then the roles reverse. You grow in an area where your spouse is struggling, and you become the one pulling them forward, with patience, encouragement, and a lot of love and grace along the way.

You’ll Wound Each Other—Sometimes Without Meaning To

I’d lie if I said our 45 years have been easy. We’ve had some awfully hard times.

Here’s something most people don’t talk about: sometimes in a marriage, a person has their own problems, and those problems wound their partner. They’re not wounding their partner on purpose. They’re just having their own problems. Maybe one of you is dealing with depression, anxiety, unresolved trauma, career stress, or health issues. You’re not trying to hurt your spouse, but your struggle affects them.

That’s when you most need to remember that you’re on the same team. The problem isn’t each other. The problem is the problem. And you tackle it together.

My wife and I have had to learn to say, “Time out. We’re not enemies here. What are we actually fighting?” Sometimes it was financial stress. Sometimes it was exhaustion from raising kids. Sometimes it was navigating one of life’s low points together. But no matter what life throws our way, we always come back to the same truth: we’re teammates.

The Biggest Mistakes I See Couples Make

After counseling men for nearly 23 years through CBMC and working with couples on estate planning, I’ve seen patterns in what breaks marriages apart. Most of it comes down to unrealistic expectations that were never discussed before the wedding.

First, skip premarital counseling and you’re setting yourself up for problems. Good premarital counseling forces you to talk about the hard stuff before you’re legally bound to each other. How will you raise kids? Who manages money? What are the expectations when he’s exhausted from work and you’re exhausted from keeping a human alive all day?

Set clear expectations on issues like these before you get married.

Second, refusing to go to counseling when you hit hard times. Sometimes you need that third party to let you say the words out loud that you shouldn’t say directly to your spouse in the moment. Get it all out to someone who can help you refine it, then bring you back together to work through it.

I’m not saying counseling solves everything, but sometimes you have to look at each other and say, “Together we’re not solving this. Let’s get help.”

Third, forgetting why you chose to get married to each other. In the hard times, you need something to come back to. You need to remember why you got married in the first place.

Ask yourself: What attracted us to each other at the start of our relationship? What did we used to love to do together? What kind of husband did I want to be when we first got married? What were my goals as a newlywed wife? How can we get back to being closer together?

Reflect on these questions together. Remember what was once at the core of your relationship. Talk about it without accusing each other of failing to live up to some ideal. Just talk about who you were and who you wanted to be together.

The Beauty of the Long Haul

After 45 years together, I can tell you that the best part of a marriage isn’t the anniversaries or the vacations. It’s that you build an entire life together—not just a home or a family, but a life.

You don’t have to worry about being known or seen by your partner because they’ve been with you through so much. They’ve seen every side of you—the good, the bad, the side that comes out at 2 a.m. when the baby won’t stop crying, the side that shows up after you’ve lost a job or buried a parent. They know you, and you know them.

Living life with your partner becomes second nature. They become a part of you. You prioritize their needs without thinking about it because their needs are your needs, and vice versa. That’s moving through life as one unit instead of two people trying to coordinate. That’s intimacy—not just romance—true intimacy. 

It’s a powerful, beautiful relationship. One of life’s greatest joys, despite the challenges along the way.

And here’s the beauty of those challenges: every one you face and overcome together makes you stronger. Every hard season you push through weaves another thread in the fabric of your marriage. You become unbreakable not because you never face problems, but because you’ve proven to each other that you can face anything and still choose each other on the other side.

My Advice to You

So if you too want a marriage that will last 45 years and beyond, here’s what I believe matters most:

Get away when you can. A night, a weekend if possible. Reconnect not just as parents or roommates, but as partners. Remember why you chose each other.

Be willing to go to counseling, separately or together, when you need it.

Talk about expectations before they become resentments.

And remember you’re on the same team. When one of you is in a low season, the other pulls them up. When one of you is growing fast, the other works to keep pace or reaches for that light ahead.

That’s what 45 years has taught me.

I know what you’re thinking. New Year’s resolutions are a joke. You’ve tried before. Lost weight until March. Quit smoking until your next crisis. Read your Bible every day until life got busy. Same promises, same failure, every single year.

So why am I telling you January is a great time to change your life?

Because I’m not talking about resolutions. I’m talking about real change. And yes, there’s a difference.

The Problem Isn’t the Timing

After building something from nothing—going from abandoned at three and homeless at seventeen to where I am today—I can tell you the problem isn’t that people try to change in January. The problem is how they try to change.

Most people make promises they can’t keep, try to overhaul everything at once, and rely on willpower instead of having a real plan. When they inevitably fail, they blame themselves for not being strong enough, disciplined enough, committed enough.

But I need you to hear this: strength has nothing to do with it.

Why January Can Work

Think about it. January is one of the few times in life when everyone around you is thinking about change. Your coworkers are talking about their goals. Your friends are asking for accountability on their resolutions. There’s collective momentum toward improvement.

That’s not a cliche. That’s an opportunity.

Because when you’re trying to make a difficult change, you need every advantage you can get. Why would you ignore the one time of year when the whole culture is leaning in the same direction you’re trying to go?

But here’s the key: you can’t approach it the way everyone else does. Because most people are setting themselves up to fail.

What Real Change Requires

After decades of working through my own changes and watching others do the same, here’s what I know: sustainable change happens through small, actionable steps that fit into real life.

Not big declarations. Not dramatic overhauls. Small steps.

Let me tell you why. When I teach financial planning, I use something called the Debt Snowball method. If someone’s drowning in debt, I don’t tell them to attack the biggest balance first. I tell them to pay off the smallest debt, get that win, and build momentum.

Why? Because success creates confidence, and confidence creates more success.

The same principle applies to any change you want to make in your life.

Where Most People Go Wrong

Most people set themselves up to fail by trying to tackle too many areas of change at once.

Friend, you don’t need to make a grandiose list of everything you want to change. Start with a handful. Even better, start with one thing. What’s most important is that one thing is actually doable.

I use this strategy in my own business with my teammates, I don’t call my employees “employees”.  I always give my teammates a little way to succeed instead of one big way to fail. 

Why? Because every time you succeed, you’re weaving threads in the tapestry of your confidence in your competence.

Read that again: confidence in your competence.

When you accomplish something—even something small—you’re proving to yourself that you can do this. That’s a thread. When you do it again, that’s another thread. Each win weaves another thread. Each thread makes you stronger. Eventually, you’ve built something that can hold weight. Eventually, you’ve built up enough strength to stick to the changes you want to see in your life.

That’s what most people miss. They think change requires superhuman willpower. What it actually requires is a series of small wins that prove to yourself you’re capable. One thread at a time.

The Question You Need to Answer

Before you can change anything, you need to get honest about what actually needs to change. Not what sounds impressive. Not what everyone else is working on. What needs to change in your life.

This is the step most people skip. They jump straight to “I’m going to lose 30 pounds” or “I’m going to read the Bible every day” without ever stopping to ask: why? What’s actually broken? What’s holding me back? What would my life look like if I changed this?

And here’s the harder question: what order should I tackle these things in?

Because if you’ve got five areas of your life that need work, you can’t fix all five at once. You have to choose. You have to prioritize. You have to build a plan that’s actually doable.

That’s why I created Your Change Map.

How to Make Change Stick

Your Change Map is a simple tool that helps you do three things:

First, it helps you identify what you actually want to change. Not surface stuff. Real change that matters.

Second, it helps you structure those changes in the right order. The order that makes sense for your life, building momentum instead of overwhelming you with everything at once.

Third, it gives you a framework for taking small, actionable steps toward the life you want. Not someday. Not eventually. Starting now.

This isn’t another journaling activity you’ll do once and forget about. It’s a practical guide for people who are tired of making the same promises every January and abandoning them by March.

You can download it for free here. Use it in January. Use it in July. Use it whenever you’re ready to stop talking about change and actually do something about it.

What Makes This Different

Let me be clear about something: Your Change Map isn’t magic. It’s not going to change your life for you. You still have to do the work.

But here’s what it will do: it will give you a clear path forward when everything feels overwhelming. Instead of trying to fix everything at once, you’ll know the next right step to take. 

You won’t make the same mistakes most people make when they try to change, because you’ll have a framework that actually works. Because the goal isn’t to become a different person overnight. The goal is to become a slightly better version of yourself, consistently, over time.

That’s how real change happens. Not through big declarations. Through small steps, taken repeatedly, in the right direction.

If You’re Ready

If you’re reading this and you’re tired of being stuck, tired of making the same promises, tired of watching another year go by without real change, then maybe you’re ready.

Ready to stop relying on willpower and start following a plan.

Ready to stop trying to change everything and start changing something.

Ready to stop beating yourself up for past failures and start building momentum toward future success.

January is a great time to start. Not because there’s anything magical about the calendar. But because you’re thinking about it right now. And right now is always the best time to take the next step.

Download Your Change Map. Identify what needs to change. Structure your plan. Take one small step.

Then take another.

That’s how you build the life you want. One step at a time, starting now.