My Personal Declaration of Revolution

My Goals:
*To rid myself of vices that harm my body and commit to taking better care of myself not just for my sake, but for my children, my wife, and my family, so I will be around for them for many more years to come.
*To become the best dad my children have seen me be so they may know that I am more than just a "father figure". I am their DaddyYo and I will always be their DaddyYo.
*To be more involved in the lives of my kids. Not just giving more baths, or being there for more feedings. But to truly be involved and dedicated to them. To learn more about them, their likes and dislikes, routines, ect. To make myself more available to them whenever they are hurt, scared, or just want to play.
*To take on more duties when it comes to the care of my children and household responsibilities. To relieve my wife of more duties and show my children that I am more than just a working stiff and playmate. To be more involved in the daily aspects of family life and responsibilities.
*To become a better husband for my wife. To be more committed to her happiness. To be a better listener and helper. To work with her, and not against her. To commit to the vows I took and the promises I made with my heart to her. To love her fully and unconditionally from now till death.
*To live my life with integrity, with conviction, and to the fullest. To live my life not only as I wish to, but as an example to others. To live my life according to my beliefs and convictions and not according to anyone's opinion. To make the most of my life, and treasure it as it is a gift, not a guarantee.

I admit that I have not lived my life the way I wish I had. I admit that I can better myself, and in turn, become a better dad, husband, and friend.

I realize that the path will not be easy, and I may fall along the way. I understand that if I want to succeed in revolutionizing myself and evolving in to the man, the dad, and the husband I wish to be, that I must be strong willed, and I must ask for the support needed to accomplish my goals.

I commit myself to being the best father, husband and friend that I can be. To let nothing hold me back in life. I commit myself to the standards I have set for myself and to never letting these standards fall to the back burner.

I promise myself, my children, my wife, my family and friends to always be there for them. To being a source of strength and hope to my children, a source of love and security for my wife. I promise my family and friends to always be a man of love and integrity, to being there in times of need and supporting in times of triumph.

From this day forward, I commit myself to revolutionizing my heart, soul, and mind, and to becoming the man I have been called to be in life. To being the dad that my children deserve, and the husband my wife needs me to be and commited her life to.

This is my declaration of revolution. This is my promise.

Time for Change - Revolution of Soul (Where do we go from here?)

The whole purpose of this short series of blogs "Revolution of Soul" was to put my personal thoughts out for public view. I hope that maybe some people who viewed the series got something from it, and if not, oh well. I feel better for having put it out there anyway. I am not a professional of any field and I fully understand that some people may have viewed this series as absolute absurdity. Makes no difference to me.

So now that it is over, where do we go from here? I have written about personal revolution, setting goals and obtaining the support that it takes to make life changes. But what happens when the pen is laid down? What happens when our computers and phones are off and the hype and talk of "The year of the Dad" isn't constantly in our faces? Can we keep the revolution personal and keep the fire with us without it being accesible by means other than our hearts and minds?

Conviction, personal will, and support. As with quitting smoking, giving up vices, religious awakenings, or what have you, conviction, personal will, and support are all vital to carrying on and achieving the goals we set for ourselves. We have to have the personal conviction and personal will power to say, I WILL and I CAN do this, and see it through until the desired goals are achieved. These two qualities are essential, not just for achieving short term goals, but for seeing it through and carrying the accomplishment with you for a lifetime. If you can't make a commitment to yourself, then you can't make a commitment to anyone.

And as with any decision that affects you for a lifetime, support is a must. Family, friends, pastors or other religious leaders, online friends and support groups. It is my belief that support from the outside can be the difference between success and failure. We cannot be afraid to let people know of major decisions we have made, and ask for their support, however they can give it, to help us make it through.

Now let us go out, show the world that we are not just your average dad. Let us go out and show the world we are evolving personally. We are dads of integrity, dads of conviction, dads with purpose. We are the modern age dad. We change diapers, give baths, play and care for our children. We are dads committed to being more and more involved in the lives of our children and willing to take on more roles in our fatherhood than dads before us. Let us revolutionize our hearts and souls, and evolve into being more than just a father. Let us be the dads we want to be, and let nothing stand in our way.

And as always, let us KEEP ROCKIN!

Time for Change - Revolution of Soul (goals)

Revolution without goals is nothing short of complete chaos.

It's all great to sit around and talk of revolution and evolution and becoming better people, but it has no basis without goals. Whether it's personal goals, family goals, marital goals, and so on, without a goal, there is no point in trying to better ourselves.

So how does this relate to the Dad Revolution and the Revolution of Soul? Well, we are wanting to change the way the world views fathers, and we are in the process wanting to better ourselves and our own roles as fathers. To do this, we must know what it is we want to achieve. Where are we wanting our lives to go and what direction are we wanting to take our fatherhood roles in? What exactly are we hoping to achieve when all is said and done and the history has been written?


There have been many goals that I have set for myself during my life, and in total honestly, I have failed at reaching the majority of them. However, none have seemed as important to me as becoming a more engaged and involved father. So I sit here, thinking while I type, what exactly do I want to accomplish? Who is this father that I want to become?  How is he me evolved? and more important, how am I going to get there?

It all starts with setting realistic goals. I know I won't instantly wake up and be "father of the year" and loved the world over by parenting experts. And honestly, I don't think I will ever become my mind's model of "the perfect father". But there are some ways I KNOW I can better myself, and it will take setting the right goals and taking the right steps to get there.

Life is not easy, and as my mom has always told me, pipe dreams are under the bed. Setting small, realistic goals, instead of the big picture goal, will help us ensure that we transform ourselves and transcend the typical "TVDad" image. Revolution and evolution of self cannot be obtained from simply wishing.

Set goals for yourself. Think about what steps you will need to take to reach these goals. Talk to your family members, friends, blog followers, whoever you feel comfortable with, and get support as you take these steps. Remember why you are doing this in the first place, set your eyes forward, don't look down and don't look back.

and of course, KEEP ROCKIN!

Time for Change - Revolution of Soul (What the revolution means personally)

Revolution has many different meanings. One meaning taken from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is "a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something". Very well put as it relates to the dad revolution that is sweeping into the dad-blog world. A change in the way of thinking about something. This dad revolution is about changing the way fathers are viewed and they way we are thought of by mainstream society. But the revolution, to me, is defined in so many ways. So as it relates to this series of posts, this is how I view it.
I want to become the best father that I can be. And I can honestly admit that I m not that father right now. (and it may be possible I never will be). But in order to become a better father, there are parts of my life that have to change. I have to "revolt" against different ideas, beliefs, habits, and thoughts and become firm in who it is I want to become as a father.

A recent post,  @Wrath66** talks about like this "I don’t know that I feel the need to revolt so much as evolve. As I’ve thought about becoming a father over the past eight months, I’ve consistently thought of it in terms more evolutionary than revolutionary". I have thought on it all morning this morning and it has, in some ways, reshaped my views on what is going on. I mentioned to him later on that I can see it as the need to "revolt" against the me I am now in order to "evolve" into the father I desire to be.

When most people think of the word "revolution" they associate it with politics, violence, changes in power or social structure. As it relates to the Dad Revolution, it means changing the view the world in general has of the rolls of a father and the father's way of thinking about his own roll. Revolution has to start in the heart and soul. You cannot expect the world (or your closest circle of friends for that matter) to believe in what you are saying and doing if you cannot believe in it yourself.

In the sense of "evolution", the Dad Revolution not only calls for a change in the way others view us as fathers, but it challenges us to evolve in our fatherhood to be so much more than how we are viewed. For myself, it means growing in to a father of integrity. A father of equal importance in his childrens' lives as his female counterpart. To become a more engaged and involved father, no matter how it is seen to everyone else. 

In order for all this to be achieved, no matter what you want to call the movement going on, we must decide in our hearts that we want to be the best father we can be, and we will no longer let other areas of our lives, or views of the world, stand in our way of becoming this "new and improved" daddy. We must believe in our hearts the words we write and speak. We must decide in our minds that this is what we want, and nothing, not even our current selves, is going to keep us from becoming a better father, and the kind of father we desire to be. We must be able to stand up, with absolute conviction, and say "Today, I make the decision that I will be more than the father I have been. And the world will see this and wake up to the new roll fathers all over the world are taking on". 

The revolution must start in the heart, it must be personal and real. It must be more than a social movement, it must be a personal movement as well. Without our hearts being at the forefront, we have no leg to stand on. Fathers of the Dad Revolution, let us be in this with our hearts and souls. Let us not only revolt, but evolve personally and let the world not only see that we are not the fathers portrayed, but we are not, personally, the fathers we were before.

Thanks for your time, and as always, KEEP ROCKIN!!!

**Take a few minutes to check out the blog from @Wrath66. A lot of good stuff going on there. Check it out! Thanks man for letting me cite you in this post and for the thought provoking post on your blog. Keep ROCKIN!**

Time for change - Revolution of the Soul (the introduction)

A lot of ROCKIN stuff has been taking place in the world of the daddy blogger and it has everyone fired up. As well they should be. With the upcoming Modern Media Man Summit in Atlanta this September and the launch of the Dad Revolution site, there is plenty to be fired up about. I myself am pretty stoked to see these come about and I throw my full support behind both.

So I started thinking about what it means to me to "revolutionize" my fatherhood and what it says of me to say that I am one to support all this. I am all for seeing the typical "TVDad" model of fatherhood smashed into a thousand pieces in the street and run over by every child who owns a tricycle. I think it's great to see so many dads and dad bloggers standing up to say that we are engaged fathers who take great joy in the role we have in life and in the fact we can hold up just as well (or almost as well) as our counterparts.

Then I dug really deep and realized : This is not just about revolutionizing the way fatherhood and fathers are viewed, but this is the perfect opportunity for us to revolutionize ourselves. It's a great time to take inventory of our lives, our hopes, our goals, our standards and beliefs. Time to take the revolution truly to the heart and soul and not only carry the torch of the "face of fatherhood" but to challenge ourselves to be the best we can be, not just as fathers, but as human beings.

In the next few posts I will discuss different ways in which we can revolutionize our souls, as well as the image of fatherhood, and will open myself to you and share the revolution that is taking place in my own life. We all want to be the best fathers we can, but it is my belief that revolution has to happen in the heart and the soul, before it can become the wildfire of change in society.

Thanks for your time and as always, KEEP ROCKIN!

You Want a Revolution?

This was written and originally posted on my Tumblr a few days ago. I moved it here today. 


Original Post from DaddyYoEffinRox.tumblr.com


This morning something totally ROCKIN happened : The Dad Revolution was launched. A group of dads who have started the movement to change the image of what it is to be “daddy”. Fathers coming together to break the mold created by the typical “TVDad” image portrayed in media and tv and show that there are plenty of fathers out there who can change a diaper, make great clothing choices for their kids, take care of and nurture their kids, just like their female counterparts. Here is my take on what is going on.



Let me first state this: I am in NO WAY against the writes of women and mothers. I am not here to put them down or take away from the glory they deserve. We all know we wouldn’t be here without a mother. Maybe that’s why we have Mother’s Day (just saying). And I can easily acknowledge that my wife generally knows more about what’s up with our two kiddos more than I do. But let’s not let that mean that I know nothing. The reason behind the revolution in the first place.


I consider myself a “decent” father. My children stay fed, they are healthy, learning in leaps and bounds, and they know they are loved. I view my role as father like this: It is my responsibility to make sure my children (and my wife) have the basic necessities of life. It is my responsibility to make sure I do everything in my power to provide for them in any way possible. It is up to me to make sure my children know how much their father loves them, and to be here when they are hurt and to uplift them in times of triumph. 
I am here to share the parenting responsibilities with my wife, to be an equal member of the parenting team when it comes to the care of our children. I am here for bedtime, naptime, bath time, play time, outside time, inside time. 


I think it is important for dads who are engaged with their children and in their role as a father to embrace the awesomeness that is “dadhood” and show the world that we are not just merely men who work and father babies. We are daddies. We are committed to our children, to being the best  daddy we can be, and to showing the world that “parenting” isn’t just for mommy anymore.


I am very proud to be a father to my two wonderful, beautiful, smart, messy, funny, annoying, sometimes smelly children. And I am very proud of the fact that I can take care of when mommy is gone. Proud that nothing gets broken or smeared everywhere. Proud that we spend a lot of time laughing and playing and eating junk food when mommy is gone. Proud of the fact that my children know I am their daddy and that daddy is always here for them.


Proud fathers, join us. Show the world that we do know what we are doing, that we do love our children with a love that cannot be outlived or outdone. That we are involved fathers who take joy in the daily grind of dadhood and at the end of the day, realize that it was all worth it, and worth doing again tomorrow.