Well today’s Friday and the weekend is here! One week of the new year down and 51 more to go. What a start to the 2011 it’s been! Something new is in the air – something wonderfully exciting; a real breath of fresh air.
You feel it? Pause and listen and if you really pay attention, you’ll feel it too! The calendar has started anew and we have another opportunity to pursue our goals and dreams for ourselves and our families!
Today we hit a new milestone on the blog – 6,000 pageviews! You might recall that last Friday, December 31, we hit 5,000. So we’re currently at a 1,000 per week pace. And that’s so gratifying! I had a conversation with a colleague yesterday and what I shared with him was that I love to see the increasing number of pageviews. But why?
Here’s the deal - I’m not simply seeking new pageviews for the sake of running up numbers. If that were the case I could easily ask friends and family to just click on the page repeatedly and run the numbers sky high. But to what end? That would be pointless.
The most powerful point I could make on this matter is this: each pageview represents a life – a life that can be touched by our positive message. There are several billion people living across the world. Once a week – generally on Saturdays – I try to do a post to welcome the new countries to our growing list of readers. On tomorrow’s post you’ll see us welcome at least 7 new countries. When I write, I think of this large audience.
I don’t know who exactly will read, or what will be there specific circumstance at the moment. I don’t know who they’re connected to. I don’t know whether they’re happily married, divorced, depressed, suicidal or anything. I just know that there is a positive message to be shared.
And every post I ever do, I seek to do in such a way to give hope to the hurting, to encourage fathers and mothers and kids in every way possible. Each time someone clicks on this blog, there’s a new opportunity to enhance someone’s life – that’s a powerful concept and an awesome responsibility. And with every fiber of my being, I seek to fulfill that responsibility.
On Fridays we generally do our Upbeat Dad of the Week feature. Since we have so many new readers to our blog and since this is the first week of the year, I wanted to take today’s post to introduce the feature to our new readers. I also want to preview some upcoming featured dads and then invite you to nominate someone who we can showcase to our worldwide audience.
We started the Upbeat Dad of the Week to share stories about fathers who are what I like to call the “foot soldiers” in our campaign to get dads across the world more excited about the very influential and unique roles that they play. It’s not something to take lightly by any means.
These fathers are not perfect necessarily – but they have all gone above and beyond the call of duty to be actively involved in their kids’ lives. They’re from various backgrounds but they share a common bond – they’re exceptional dads and that’s why I like to highlight them.
Far too often, we hear about a deadbeat dad who’s not paying child support. Or about fathers who are physically or verbally abusive to the extent that they scar their kids for life, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively.
And as is often the case, these kids grow up and repeat the same destructive cycle. These stories may make for good TV or radio ratings, but they also cause lives to be damaged – and in some cases, damaged beyond repair.
So at the Upbeat Dad, we choose to highlight stories about fathers who make us all believe in the good of humanity. Some ask the question, “Where have all the good men gone?” Well they’re so many out there – and at least on this blog, we like to highlight them.
Here are all the features we're done in this series thus far:
- Inaugural Upbeat Dad of the Week Spotlight
- Upbeat Dad of the Week: Melvin Thompson
- Upbeat Dad of the Week: Your Dad
- Upbeat Dad of the Week: Edward Rapier
Next Friday’s post will be about a divorced father who has two boys – one of whom has autism. Please be sure to read that post – you’ll be blown away at the measures this father takes to ensure he’s there for his boys. Later in the month we’ll feature a man who, for most of his career, was the chief administrator at a home for boys, many of whom are orphans or abandoned.
These stories are what the world needs to hear more about and I’m committed to sharing such stories to encourage us all. I think it’s a breath of fresh air to hear stories such as these.
If you would like to nominate anyone for this feature, please do so by sending an email to: info@theupbeatdad.com. You may nominate your dad, uncle, relative, friend or even yourself for this feature. Also, you can always correspond with us by posting comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page or on Twitter.
I hope that you see where we’re going with this in 2011. It’s a new year and we want to make an even greater impact our children’s lives than we have to this point. It’s been a great ride thus far. But based on all that I envision, I believe that we haven’t scratched the surface yet – much more is in store! And as it all unfolds, families all around our world will benefit immensely. And that’s something to get excited about!
Have a great weekend. And do something fun with the kids. It’ll put a smile on their face and warm your heart in the process.
Enjoy. “Talk” with you soon.
The Upbeat Dad
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