The idea of Father’s Day was conceived in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Dodd while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909.

Dodd (now known as “the mother of Father’s Day”) wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm.

The following year, June 19, 1910 was chosen for the first Father’s Day celebration, proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the month of William Smart’s birth.

Decades later, the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.

Father’s Day by the Numbers

This is a big day for the 66.3 million fathers in America.

Nearly 95 million Father’s Day cards were given last year in the United States, making Father’s Day the fourth-largest card-sending occasion.

Sons and daughters send 50 percent of the Father’s Day card to their dads. Nearly 20 percent of Father’s Day cards are purchased by wives for their husbands. That leaves 30 percent of the cards which go to grandfathers, sons, brothers, uncles and “someone special.”

While not everyone in America is a fan of Father’s Day, 72 percent of Americans plan to celebrate or acknowledge Father’s Day.

Gifts for Father’s Day

Neckties are an old standby and lead the list of Father’s Day gifts. A good place to buy dad a tie or a shirt might be one of 9,189 men’s clothing stores around the country.

Other items high on the list of Father’s Day gifts include those items you may find in dad’s toolbox such as hammers, wrenches and screwdrivers. You could buy some of these items for dad at one of the nation’s 14,864 hardware stores or 5,795 home centers.

Other traditional gifts for dad such as fishing rods and golf clubs make for a happy Father’s Day for the 22,410 sporting goods stores in America.

More than 68 million Americans participated at a barbecue in the last year — it’s probably safe to assume many of these barbecues took place on Father’s Day.

Mr. Mom

Mr. Mom is becoming a more common sight at parks across America with 147,000 estimated “stay-at-home” dads. These married fathers with children under 15 years old have remained out of the labor force for more than one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 268,000 children under 15.

The dads seem to stay home more with younger children. Preschoolers claim 20 percent of fathers with employed wives who were the primary caregiver for their preschooler. In contrast, only 6 percent of fathers provided the most hours of care for their grade-school-aged child.

Many families split the responsibility of child care. Many Dads’ (32%) with full time jobs regularly worked evening or night shifts and were the primary source of care for their preschoolers during their children’s mother’s working hours.

One of the most important things we can do for our businesses, schools, and organizations is to have vision. Vision being a clear picture of a desired end result that you are aiming for.

However, sometimes, no matter how big our vision was originally, we find ourselves focusing in on the daily events that require our attention but have nothing or little to do with our ultimate vision.

Occasionally, we think to ourselves, “Hey, I’m not really getting any closer to my vision. I’m spinning my wheels here.” This is when it is time to re-develop your vision! Here are some helpful hints in doing just that.

Assess your strengths.

To achieve your vision, you and your staff will have to operate out of your strengths. If you are having a hard time moving toward your current vision, perhaps it is because the vision requires extended application of strengths that you and/or your organization don’t have. Either you need to hire into those strengths, develop those strengths, or re-develop the vision.

Reassess your original vision.

Maybe what you used to think wasn’t realistic according to your strengths, your abilities, or your circumstances. Maybe it is time to change or modify the vision to make it attainable.

Ask yourself where your passions lie.

If we are to attain great things, they must be aligned with those things that burn deep within us. Do you still have a passion for your vision? Does your staff have a passion for your vision? If not, you need to develop the passion, or find the vision that you can pour your passion into. Never underestimate the power of passion and excitement in moving you toward (or keeping you from) your vision.

Ask yourself what it is that you value.

What is important to you? How will fulfilling my current vision, fulfill my desire to do something important and worthwhile for myself, my family, my employees, and my community?

Break the vision down into easy to achieve steps.

This helps us see that the vision is attainable. It lets us know the end result, but focus intently into achieving the next goal. This, step-by-step, moves us toward the vision.

4. GET A GRIP ON “IT.” In her book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers says IT is what scares you – and ultimately, what’s holding you back from going after your dream. Perhaps your fear centers on money, or that you’re not “smart enough,” or that you’ll fall flat on your face. Let’s face it – shaking up your life is scary. Yet, “Unless you walk out into the unknown,” says Tom Peters, “the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low.” So go ahead and indulge in your worst-case fantasy. Then get busy figuring out what steps you can take to prevent it from happening.

5. GET THE RIGHT PICTURE. Be honest. How much time do you spend bitching about your lousy boss, hellish commute and on and on? As satisfying as a good gripe session is, you’re wasting precious energy on the wrong picture. Five minutes a day spent visualizing your ideal work-life and fashioning a plan to get you there will move you far closer to your goal than 30 minutes of complaining about what you don’t want. Bottom line: You won’t see yourself doing it until you can see yourself doing it.

5. GET REAL. You’ve seen the easy money pitches: “Earn $1,000 a week stuffing envelopes in the comfort of your own home.” Sounds great, right? Now, snap out of it! Launching your own business takes time and effort. You should also expect a drop in income – at least in the beginning. Now is the time to revisit the ideal life you outlined in Step 2 and ask yourself, “How much do I really want my ideal life? What am I willing to do or give up to get it?” If you are serious about living life on your own terms, the sacrifice will be worth it.

6. GET READY. A goal has been described as a dream with a deadline. Take out a calendar. Even if you haven’t nailed down all the details, you should still go ahead and set a target date for when you want your “new life” to begin. Besides being a great source of motivation, knowing how much time you have between now and “D-ream day” lets you create a realistic plan for hitting it.

7. GET INFORMED. Change always seems scarier when you have either inadequate, or worse, inaccurate information. Go to the library. Join associations. Talk to people who have started similar businesses. Take classes. Read trade publications. The more informed you are, the less “risky” the risks become.

8. GET SUPPORT. Enthusiasm is contagious, but so is pessimism. Avoid the nay Sayers and try to seek out others who share your passion for living life on your own terms. Consider meeting weekly with other aspiring entrepreneurs to generate ideas, share information and help each other stay on track.

9. GET GOING. To keep from being overwhelmed – yet still make headway – break your larger goal down into more manageable steps. Then, no matter how hectic thing get, pledge to take at least one action a day. Even the smallest actions – jotting down a new idea, reading a single page, or making one phone call – start to add up. And, once you actually get the ball rolling, it’s hard to stop!

10. GET GRATITUDE. At the same time you’re setting your sights on achieving your future goal, be mindful of how much abundance you have in your life RIGHT NOW! Changing course is a journey. Count your blessings and enjoy the ride. When you think about it, it’s all we really have.

When you move out of the familiar, tension builds in your body. If you give into fear and retreat, the subconscious has won again. You slip back into autopilot, but you still wish there was a way out of the trap you put yourself in. It isn’t that your subconscious is evil, this part of your mind simply repeats what you previously programmed it to do. Unfortunately, many of those programs were created when you were younger than ten and the logic for them is no longer valid. The biggest mistake that most people make is to perceive the tension as a bad thing and wanting to run away from it.

To move through change with poise, the uncomfortable feelings can be reframed in your mind as positive. When life starts to feel awkward and scary, it just means you are moving beyond the box that you made for yourself. The more at peace you can be with those awkward moments, the stronger you become and less affected by change. Ultimately, you will feel a sense of personal power increase and the willingness to tackle any obstacle.

Your sense of peace is not determined by external circumstances but how you feel about what is happening to you. Nervousness before a first date can be transformed into excitement of meeting someone new. The discomfort the first few days after quitting smoking can be interpreted as you finally resisting the need to soothe yourself with poison. The more you expand into new experiences, the easier it becomes to be invincible in anything in life.

Next time you start to feel uncomfortable, remember to smile and pat yourself on the back for your bravery. You can channel the feeling of fear into excitement, just like you have before going on a big roller coaster. After all, isn’t life supposed to be a wonderful ride, right?