Safe or Strong?

Question: Do you want your kids to be safe or strong? I heard this question on a podcast yesterday while trail running. Now this question can also apply to yourself or others. In my point of view being safe is an allusion. Being safe and only safe tells me that everything has been prepared and sanitized. That there is no risk. That the possibility of failure has been mitigated. What is to be learned from this type of a scenario? Nothing is learned. When I think of this question I automatically choose strong over safe. I want my kids to experience failure and heartache. I want my kids to know how it feels to be in a situation where being scared is good. Where the possibility of failure is high. This is the only proven way that they can create self awareness and self residency. Now do I want my kids to be put into dangerous situations that they are totally unprepared for? Absolutely not, that would be stupid and extremely poor parenting and reckless. But at the same time they need to learn that life is tough and sometimes it is not fun. Sometimes you have to find out what you are made of and how far you can push yourself and how uncomfortable they can really get. If I stifle that while they are young in order to keep them so called safe, what good am I doing for them later on in life when they are expected to make good sound decisions on their own. I believe too many people let the 24 hour information machine dictate their lives too much. They lose sight of how their life is really going and base it off of what they hear and read everyday. They make life decisions based off of this information without really looking around and seeing what their life is really about. Remember the only control we have in life is how we respond to it and how we view it. If we let that 24 hour information machine that we carry around in our hand or pocket every day and all day dictate to us whether we believe in being safe or strong, we have let go of the only true control that we have in life. In my book, that is no way to live. Teach yourself and those around you to be strong and not to shy away from failure. To embrace life. To be willing to fail forward. You have the ability to always stand up after a failure and look behind and realize that you are further along than you though because of those failures. These are the true lessons in life. 

Thanks and as always your comments are always welcomed,