Episode 1-SUCCESS-How defining success more broadly might help our kids to be less stressed and more excited about the future.

Is admission to a brand name college truly the start of the road to a happy life? Has the pressure to get in taken time and focus away from teens’ ability to explore and stumble and dream? How has the definition of adolescence and emerging adulthood changed over time and what might those changes mean for the ways in which we have  adapted or changed our parenting of today’s teens. What might be the consequences of letting our own anxieties about our kid’s accomplishments, which can lead us to protect them from faltering and failing, when we know that those mistakes and missteps will undoubtedly inform their road to true fulfillment? Are WE defining success FOR them - or is it so pervasive in the culture that they’ve espoused it without our influence?What would some of the greatest thinkers and experts on the art of happiness-from the Ancient Greek philosophers to Martin Seligman-the father of Positive Psychology- say about how we define success today? What role do the things that Aristotle held up as most critical to attaining a sense of satisfaction in life-things like virtue, values, self-acceptance-play in this current definition of success. At the end of the day, what we really want is for our kids to have fulfilling lives. But in the here and now, it's really hard for parents to take the long view and accept that stumbles now may truly be investments in our kids' long term happiness.