Let’s be honest: if we, as parents, were completely transparent about the challenges of parenting, humanity might fizzle out of existence! Yet, here we are, still growing. Why?

Is it because we genuinely care about humanity’s future? We want to grow and thrive collectively, and both science and spirituality suggest we’re interconnected. While there is plenty of current conflict and evidence to contradict this, I believe it to be largely true, though not the primary driver.

My theory is simpler: the contradictions within our parenting paradox favor positive experiences over negative ones. You can identify two polarizing descriptors for parenting—one positive, one negative. Reflect on your experiences and feel free to share your own in the comments. Here are ten examples:

• Love and Despair
• Happiness and Anger
• Fulfillment and Frustration
• Inspired and Drained
• Energized and Exhausted
• Engaged and Alienated
• Belonging and Isolation
• Devoted and Desperate
• Pleasure and Pain
• Clarity and Confusion

Sound familiar? Each set of experiences may embody multiple emotions. Take the morning routine (used loosely). Most mornings involve tears, fights, stubbornness, screams, and spills—lots of stress before 8 a.m. Yet, despite this chaos, I find moments of joy: smiles, laughter, and the encouragement of seeing something new they’ve learned.

It’s comparable to that one incredible golf shot that keeps you coming back despite many more hooks and slices (speaking for myself). In parenting, the positive moments outweigh the negatives, even if the latter may feel more frequent. We perceive them differently; they impact us more and (to be fair) we have to keep coming back!

What’s your equivalent?

I believe your positive experiences will overshadow the negatives, too. Reflecting on both makes you a better parent, strengthens your relationship with your kids, and brings deeper meaning to your family life—and life in general. Meaningful experiences and relationships are what life is all about.

This is similar to the paradox of leadership. Both contradictory elements may be true, and understanding why they exist, what drives them, and how they impact others enables us to identify the behaviors that make us better. In doing so, we can create more meaning, shared experiences, and impact for our people.

This brings me back to parenting and why I think it’s important to acknowledge on a professional platform like LinkedIn. Whether or not you’re already a parent, you work with parents. You have or had parents (and I appreciate that looks different for everyone due to many complex dynamics). In short, in one way or another, parenting influences who we are as human beings and how we show up for others in our lives, including our kids.

It’s a clear example of how our inputs in one sphere of life affect our impact in others. Inputs include beliefs, thoughts, expectations, words, behaviors, and actions. How we show up as parents can directly or indirectly affect the impact we intend to make in other spheres: Self, Work Role, Workplace, Community, and Money. All six spheres of impact are connected by one constant: us, as individuals.

We all choose how we show up. For me, that means being intentional about fusing my purpose into the spheres that matter most for this current season of time. I know exactly what that means and what it looks like in each sphere. This is part of what I work on with my clients in the early phases of our coaching engagements.

It seems fitting that this week I was honored to receive a Real Leaders Top Executive Coach award, as part of an elite group of 20 incredible coaches focused on driving impact through their clients. This coincided with our monthly forum yesterday, where we were asked to share one thing in our personal lives we wanted to acknowledge and improve. Mine was to be more present in parenting. I’ve gotten better at it over the last 24 months, but there’s still plenty of room to grow.

When you love what you do professionally, it’s easy to get wrapped up in it. As an entrepreneur or solopreneur with limited capacity, it’s even easier for work to bleed over into personal life. This may not mean working during family time, but it could mean not being fully emotionally, mentally, or physically present.

One of the members of my group quoted a yogi who said that when you watch the hand of the clock ticking, you’re watching your life go by. What a visual. Each second is a heartbeat, every few seconds a breath. Your life is ticking away—what are you doing with it? How effectively are you embracing the moments in front of you?

So, I’ll leave you with this: as a parent, what moment in front of you is more impactful than a purposeful moment with your kids? How can you make those moments count?

Have an awesome weekend, everyone! Parents, may the force be with you!