Give your grad the gift of life wisdom for a successful launch into the real world! Grad season special, $11 through June 15th with promo code GRAD7.
  • How will I measure "success" in my life?
  • What character traits will I model to others?
  • How will I build strong relationships and work effectively with others?
  • What role does faith play in my life?
  • How will I persevere through life's inevitable hardships?
  • How do I become a masterful decision maker, goal setter, and time manager?
  • How will I succeed in college academics?
  • How will I select and thrive in my career?
  • How will I know he or she is "the one" and prepare for a lasting marriage?
  • How will I achieve my financial goals and manage my money?
  • How will I measure "success" in my life?
  • What character traits will I model to others?
  • How will I build strong relationships and work effectively with others?
  • What role does faith play in my life?
  • How will I persevere through life's inevitable hardships?
  • How do I become a masterful decision maker, goal setter, and time manager?
  • How will I succeed in college academics?
  • How will I select and thrive in my career?
  • How will I know he or she is "the one" and prepare for a lasting marriage?
  • How will I achieve my financial goals and manage my money?
What I Wish I Knew at 18 View Sample LessonsView Sample LessonsRead a Sample ChapterBuy The Christian Student GuideBuy The Student Guide Buy The Book
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Equipping Young Adults for Real World Success


LifeSmartADDRESSING THE NEED

Dennis Trittin founded LifeSmart Publishing to help address the life skills deficit hindering today’s younger generation. Observation and research suggests this looming crisis is rooted in several cultural and institutional forces:

    1. increasing fragmentation of family life
    2. immature or absent parenting
    3. schools viewing character/life skills as the domain of parents and therefore focusing primarily on traditional subject matter; parents incorrectly assume schools are fully covering key life subjects (e.g., finance)
    4. inadequate youth employment opportunities
    5. harmful cultural messages from the media and entertainment industries

The end result is that our society is producing a generation of young adults largely unprepared to negotiate life, develop and maintain healthy life-long relationships, demonstrate honorable and effective leadership, build stable households, and succeed in a--- Read More
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Embrace Change as an Opportunity

5/19/2013 6:41:02 PM

  Change happens—predictably or unexpectedly and happily or not. And, each of us handles it differently. Unfortunately, some are so uncomfortable with change that they’d prefer a mundane status quo to the uncertainty of something different. Because they don’t know how things will turn out, they expect the worst. That’s too bad—because change can be incredibly positive!             This year’s g--- Read More
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Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

5/12/2013 10:17:29 PM

  Life is a series of choices, some planned and some not. Some involve fun and others involve pain. Some are made from the mind and others from the heart. Some turn out well, and some we regret.   I was blessed to work for an amazing leader, George Russell, who could distill the complex down to simple truisms or questions. One of them was, “If you’re not sure whether to do something, imagine it as the headline in tomorrow’s newspaper.” Yowza!   This --- Read More
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Learn My Winning Study Method (Part 2)

4/24/2013 11:07:56 PM

Now you’re ready to roll. You’ve prepared well for your exam (using what you learned about my winning study method in my last post) and are supremely confident in your ability to perform. But wait—there are still a few pointers that will help during your exams!  Often you’ll have essay tests where you answer several preassigned questions or where you’ll have a choice in answering some subset of questions. If you’re given the potential questions ahead--- Read More
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Learn My Winning Study Method (Part 1)

4/24/2013 11:01:21 PM

  Are you—or is someone close to you—going off to college soon? It’s a big step that requires careful planning because it’s a whole different world than high school.   I want to tell you about a study method that took this 2.85 first-year college GPA to a 3.97 Valedictorian GPA at graduate school. Seriously! (And I don’t say that to brag, only to say that if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for anyone.) As I progressed through my acad--- Read More
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Adversity Can Be Preparation for Greater Things

4/20/2013 12:19:17 AM

    I spent last Sunday on the edge of my seat, watching the Masters. I was thrilled to see Australia’s Adam Scott take the prize under extraordinary pressure. What an honor for him to be a first time Masters’ winner AND the first Aussie to claim that title! It was especially heartening after his devastating loss at the Open Championship last summer—when he bogeyed his last four holes to hand the Claret Jug to a shocked Ernie Els. It just goes to prove that when--- Read More
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New! Financial Literacy Posters

4/15/2013 7:16:39 PM

  We have some exciting news to share! LifeSmart Publishing has partnered with the creative genius at Learning ZoneXpress to develop an innovative poster series: Secrets to Money Management.   This cleverly designed four-poster set shares financial wisdom from What I Wish I Knew at 18, equipping your students with these “real world” success principles: ·       Be a Skillful Earner (career choice and becoming a workplace MVP) &mid--- Read More
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Suffering from Senioritis?

4/12/2013 12:46:50 AM

    se·nior·i·tis noun \se-nyer-'i-tis\: an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.   Sound familiar? I know at this stage in my senior year I had a bad case of it! We all did. After all, we were on the homestretch, and most of us had made our college or career decisions by now. So, it was pretty easy to rationalize slacking off at school. But, decades later (and hopefully wiser), I can now look--- Read More
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Grow Your Wealth Patiently

4/5/2013 10:48:55 PM

You’ve all seen the ads, “Get rich quick!” The implication is that, with little effort or investment, you can become wealthy overnight.   Not so fast.   In life, patience is a virtue. In building wealth, it’s an absolute necessity! It means starting early (so time is on your side), investing as much as you can (so you have more money working for you), and adopting a globally diversified, long-term strategy (so you avoid the pitfalls of market timing). Most studi--- Read More
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Celebrate Your Victories and Learn from Your Defeats

3/30/2013 10:10:41 PM

  This week I had the distinct privilege of visiting an alternative high school that serves the neediest and most challenged of students. My conversation with the principal—a man who has given his life to reach and impact disadvantaged youth and help turn their lives around—left me inspired and encouraged. His stories of the ups and downs of working with that student population reminded me of the introduction to “ABC’s Wide World of Sports,” when the narra--- Read More
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Smile-Your Countenance Matters!

3/24/2013 9:29:55 PM

Being half Irish, I love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day  I may not be a big fan of corned beef and cabbage, but bring on a pint of green brewsky and a good rendition of “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” and I’m in the zone!     Have you ever thought about what your eyes—what your countenance in general, really—say about you? When I first meet someone, I look at their eyes  (are they kind?) and their mouth (are they joyful?). Sound craz--- Read More
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Virginia School Counselors Rock!

3/20/2013 3:54:14 PM

  I love being with School Counselors. I think they’re the “heart of the school.” They are asked to do so much—guiding the high achiever and those who are struggling mightily with life. What’s more, the fingerprints they leave with their wisdom, care, and direction aren’t often felt until years later—long after their students have left to their next steps. It’s so reminiscent of Mr. Holland’s Opus (one of my favorite movies), where Mr--- Read More
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