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What William Knows Thanksgiving 2017

28 November 2017

Allison asked her 10-year old nephew, William, for more life advice for her readers. This Thanksgiving tradition started when he was seven, and it’s one Allison treasures.

Tags: allison read, leadership, what william knows

My youngest nephew, William, is funny, empathetic, kind, confident, and wise beyond his 10 years. His advice is so helpful to me that I tag his Allison Partners blog posts, What William Knows, so I can reread them whenever I need a refresher. Last week, he shared these suggestions with me.

• You need to be flexible when things don’t go well. Do what you can to improve the situation, but if there’s really nothing you can do to fix it, then try to be patient with yourself and everyone else in the situation until things change.
• If you’re having a hard time being happy, you should try to remember a happy time. If that doesn’t help, you might try to pretend you’re feeling better to see if you can fake it ‘til you make it because I’ve heard sometimes that can work.
• You’ll get more of what you want if you try to stay positive and laugh. You need to laugh. A lot.
• If you want more peace in the world, you need to be peaceful in yourself. (He heard that at church last month and has been spreading the word.)
• When a friend gets on your nerves, try to take a deep breath and refresh your mind before you say the next thing to him.
• Being patient is one of the most important things you can do. It’s really hard. I learned a lot about patience in the last year while we lived in a rental house waiting for our house to be rebuilt after Hurricane Matthew and then after I got hit in the head with a baseball. You have to be really, really, really, really patient while you’re waiting for a concussion to get better. I’m okay now, but I’ve learned you can’t rush getting better.
• Try to use technology to stay in touch with your family members who live far away. It’s not the same as being together, but FaceTime sure does help in between visits. (William spent this Thanksgiving with his mom’s side of the family so he and I worked on this post using FaceTime. We’re huge fans of FaceTime.)
• Last year we learned about the Civil Rights movement and how even if someone has different color skin than you, inside she is just like you and equal to you and a person and has feelings. You have to remember that about people who have a different religion than you, too. Basically, you should just remember that about anyone who is different than you.
• Try to hold your head high and be confident. Don’t be a jerk about it, but believe in yourself and don’t let your own bad thoughts or people who are mean push you down.

• If you’re learning something knew and it’s too hard, it’s okay to walk away from it for a while and return to the challenge when you’re ready. This year, I’ve learned how to solve different Rubik’s Cubes, created a training video to help other people learn how to solve them, and went to a competition, but before I did all that I had to quit like three or four times before I was really ready. I watched hundreds of YouTube videos, asked a friend for help, and wrote down the instructions step-by-step before I could solve one without looking at the instructions. I don’t think it’s bad that sometimes I quit along the way. I needed a break. Maybe I needed to grow up a little more before I could try again. Maybe you need a break from something you’re trying to learn, too.
• Try to be a child even when you’re a grown-up. I mean, Allie, you have a serious job, and do serious stuff, and help people with really serious situations, and your name is on the door of your office, but you still have a lot of fun and act like a kid. More grown-ups should do that.

William and I thank you for reading and hope you’ll share your comments below.

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