Episode 11: Get Involved

The Power of Getting Involved: How Engagement Transforms Experiences

How much more fulfilling would life be if people were truly engaged in what they do? Whether it’s a hobby, a daily task, or a relationship, involvement makes all the difference. In this episode of Message for My Kids, the host encourages his children and listeners to be fully present in their actions. The more involved a person is, the more they learn, grow, and truly understand what they’re doing.

Why Engagement Matters

Being actively involved in something creates a deeper connection to it. Instead of passively completing a task, full engagement brings:

• Greater understanding – More involvement in your experiences leads to better comprehension. If you skate by in life and are in autopilot mode, you miss great opportunities of learning.

• More enjoyment – Being fully present makes tasks feel more fulfilling.

• Improved skills – The more effort you put in, the better the results. This goes for almost anything you do.

Everyday Activities Teach Valuable Lessons

Even simple tasks can become meaningful learning experiences when you become more involved. The host shares how getting involved in basic activities, like driving, can shift a person’s perspective.

• Things that you do around the house – Familiarize yourself with tasks you do around the house, from easy to more advanced tasks, understand why certain things function the way they do. This also is a great way to learn and improve your skills.

• Building relationships – Become involved in your relationships. Whether it’s marriage, friendship, or with your siblings, make the effort to engage in these relationships.

Final Thoughts: Make Every Action Count

Life isn’t about being on autopilot, it’s about truly participating. Whether it’s a task, a hobby, or a relationship, getting involved leads to deeper understanding, personal growth, and greater satisfaction.

Listen to this episode of Message for My Kids in the player above. Explore how involvement shapes your experiences and why taking an active role in life’s moments makes all the difference.

Or…. you may view the transcript of the episode below!

Welcome back to another episode, Message for My Kids.

Today, we're going to talk about getting involved.

Getting involved, what does that mean?

I think to you, it means getting involved for a movement.

But I think it's more than that.

It's more than just getting involved with a specific movement, getting involved with politics.

I think it's more than that.

And with my life, the way it goes now is I get involved with almost everything that I can.

I get involved with cooking.

I get involved with communicating individually with you kids.

I get involved with movies.

I get involved with video games.

I get involved with board games.

And obviously, I don't just play video games by myself.

It's really what you guys would want to do.

Getting involved.

This past weekend, we were playing a game.

And one of you guys fell asleep.

Actually, two of you fell asleep.

Two of you fell asleep.

You woke up with a shot of energy and you were getting involved in the game.

And it was like, where did this come from?

Like you're totally involved, which was awesome.

Then another child fell asleep and woke up.

And the next day, you were involved.

You're involved into the game.

Even now, you seem more addicted, which to me, I don't mind.

I mean, I think that's amazing because I never thought you were going to get involved in video games, but now you guys are asking me, could we play, could we play, could we play?

I think getting involved with things that you want to get involved with is a start.

But getting involved in almost everything you do, I think is amazing.

And how do you get involved?

How do you get involved in doing stuff?

Well, I think you have to think about it.

I think you have to learn about it.

If you're reading a book and you're just reading just to read, just to buy time, I don't think you're getting involved.

But if you get involved into that book, the words are going to start meaning something, every word that you read from "the" to "cover," to "jump," to "walking," to "talking," whatever word you read in that book, I think it's getting involved.

And when do you get involved?

When?

I think any time that you're doing something, even from taking a shower and you get that shampoo and the conditioner, the new stuff that we bought, I don't even know what it's called, but it smells stinkin great.

How involved can you get?

And you read the ingredients, you read the back and you read the description, you're getting more involved into the scent and what it is.

There’s some people that get involved into makeup.

People get involved into music.

But I think if you get involved in almost everything you do, I think you're gonna enjoy the little things.

I get involved in driving.

I try my hardest to drive like I am the best driver on the streets and everybody else is driving like they're not supposed to, which more than almost half the time I am driving and driving under the speed limit one mile an hour under the speed limit.

One

And most of the time there's somebody on the road getting road rage.

And the reason why I drive one mile under the speed limit is because the tires that we have on are literally going two miles per hour over the speed limit.

So I get involved with driving because I need to pay attention to what I'm doing.

I want to be a safe driver and there's somebody out there with road rage and they're upset because you're following the road rules.

That's okay.

That's okay.

If I wasn't involved, I think I would have probably sped up, let them go on my rear and then three seconds later, they're going to take a left or take a right and then just mirror off.

And then there I am, speeding and going 60 on a 55.

But that's because I wouldn't be involved and I'd be sidetracked.

So I think when you get involved is almost every time, every time being involved and being at a young age, all the way till I want to say my age, get involved, be involved, almost on whatever you do.

If you're messing with speakers, you're destroying the speakers, opening it up, you're cutting wood, you're fixing your bike, you're putting air in your tire, learn what PSI means.

What does it mean?

When we're putting air in the tires and using the air pumps, get involved.

Why are the, what's going on with the tools?

Why do we need the tools?

Why do we need to have the air compressor hose coming from the house rather than the garage when it's cold?

Getting involved gets you more understanding, understanding of stuff.

So I think the reason why you should get involved is because it'll help you.

It'll help you with an understanding.

You’ll grow, you'll learn, you'll understand things.

And I think it'll also help you kind of do things that you want to do.

I mean, there's a million things to do around the world.

There's a million things.

You can make your own light, like a lamp, you get a lamp, you get a bulb, you get a cord, you can buy different cords, extensions, tape them together, have the LEDs go all over the room, colorful lights.

It's just about getting involved.

I installed a, or not installed, I put a bulb in the restroom that you can change the light from white to blue to pink.

And it was like I was getting involved because when you guys take baths, you can change the color.

You can put on some music.

So it's like getting involved in the ideas of what you want to do.

Or even sometimes you just do stuff.

But when you do stuff, get involved.

If you're at work, get involved.

And remember, you're not the boss at work.

You don't own the company unless somehow, some way, you end up owning a company, but you don't own the company.

They might have a mission statement that you can read.

They have a vision statement.

And I'm sure they do.

Read that, get involved.

There's different ways of getting involved into things.

Surround sound.

I remember when we started having surround sound, man, did we get involved into that.

I remember one of you were just involved in the surround sound speakers, and then you would just be asking questions.

You were involved.

You were the speaker person. And it was pretty cool because the more you get involved, the more you enjoy stuff.

The more you don't get involved, you're going to feel like you're doing things that you don't even want to do.

And that's why, that's why sometimes I try to get you guys involved.

I try to get you guys involved into things that we do.

I remember before one of you were like, meh, meh, meh.

And it was like, it was kind of hard to get you involved.

It was like, what's going on?

Like, you know, a board game, you want to play a board game?

Meh.

Uh, you want to play a game?

Meh.

You want to watch Netflix by yourself?

Meh.

Okay.

Do you want to go lay in bed?

You want time alone?

Do you want, do you want to go, like you need rest?

Mmm.

Mmm.

And it was hard to get you involved.

It was hard.

But somehow, someway, each one of you turned it around.

Turned it around and got you involved, you're involved.

But I think if you take that and use that, I mean, it can even go through, it can even be through your siblings.

It could be through relationships.

It could be through marriages.

It could be through friendships.

You know, how involved are you?

And I think one thing is you definitely don't want to wait and expect for something to happen.

There's nothing that's going to happen.

There's nothing that's going to happen where you're going to not be involved.

You know, if you're sitting on a chair watching TV and you're waiting for your sibling to call you or say, Hey, you want to hang out?

You're going to be waiting there for a very long time because nothing's going to happen.

Nothing's going to happen.

There’s not a cake that’s gonna come around the corner and be like, Hey, let's get involved.

Here you go.

You have to take the initiative and get involved.

The trick is getting the other person motivated to get involved.

And if they don't want, no matter what tricks you have, no matter what you do and they don't get involved, that is not your problem.

That is not your problem.

The other person has to take the initiative to get involved, but you don't want to block it out like I was trying to get you guys involved.

You guys are, you guys are my, my children, my kids.

To get you involved.

I was, I was throwing opportunities out there.

Hey, you want to do this?

You want to do this?

How about we watch a movie?

How about we do this?

How about we do that?

But you yourself have to get that initiative and go get involved.

And once you get involved, you'll start enjoying it.

You'll start enjoying events.

I know that there was a time in your life already even given your age is pretty young that you were involved at one point of doing something.

You got to find it.

If you lost it, get involved.

Even, even if it's getting your clothes on, put your clothes on, get involved.

Straighten out your shirt, look good, make sure that your pants are going over your shoes a bit, whichever way you like it.

So that's my message to you.

That's my message to you is get involved, and only you are the ones that are going to get involved.

If you're waiting for somebody else to get you involved and you're like, I'ma wait, I'ma wait, I'ma wait.

My eyes, that's totally wrong.

You are not some high prince, princess sitting on a throne and no one's going to come and kiss your toes and your feet.

Get involved.

You'll start enjoying it from the small things to the big things, from coloring to wondering.

This is another message for my kids.