7. Focus on those who really can't go it alone—your children.

 

Again, this is tough going. Give yourself high marks on what is maybe the most important lifework you’ll ever be charged with.

At the same time, remember that children don’t have the resources you do. Nor the chance to fix what necessarily falls on you to fix.

Let their helplessness be the final irresistible call to your heroism.

“Man’s greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes—obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes.”

—Victor Hugo

“Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.”

—Tom Brokaw

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

—Christopher Reeve