It's amazing how much you can learn from children. I am constantly amazed just watching my daughter grow up. Over the past week, I've seen my daughter come from crawling around the house to walking with all the swagger of a fearsome but drunk pirate (Jack Sparrow anyone?!) I feel so proud and blessed to see her developing so well.
Anyways, still more digressing. The point I'm trying to make is that I've learned some important truths about growing and succeeding in life from watching my daughter over the past few months and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.
1. Don't be afraid of falling My daughter falls on average a hundred times a day. For real. Whether its walking, playing on the bed or sofa, whatever it is she's doing, you can be sure she's going to fall a gazillion times in a day. In fact, i think she finds it extremely strange that we her parents don't seem to fall, ever. Ha! If she only knew! The amazing thing is though, it doesn't stop her. No matter how many times she falls, she'll pick herself up again and again and again. And then again. I gave up trying to pick her up. Too exhausting.
Life lesson: No matter how many times you fail in life, pick yourself up and keep going. Again and again and then again. Falling is just part of growing.You can't learn to walk without falling a few hundred times so why should succeeding at a relationship, a career, a journey be without its falls? Pick yourself up.
2. Be annoyingly persistent when you want something On my bed side is a little cupboard where i keep whatever books, wallets, phone and other nick nacks nearby. Before my daughter could even crawl properly, she took note of this little treasure chest of mine. She determined that she needed to have whatever I keep in there. I marveled watching her learn to lean precariously over the side of the bed to pull open the drawer and reach beyond her little arms could possibly do so to pull out a book - ripping several of them in the process or worse, my wallet. What was amazing was seeing the daily persistence and how she kept adapting till she could finally open it and get whatever she wanted from the drawer. You should see the look of satisfaction on her face whenever she'd succeed. Priceless.
Life lesson: Be annoyingly persistent in going after what you want and keep adapting till you finally attain your goal. Life isn't going to just give you what you want. There are so many obstacles to overcome but keeping trying different things till you succeed.
3. You gotta let things go! One of the hardest things I have to do is to punish my dearest Princess from time to time. It's incredibly hard to spank her. Sometimes I wonder if she even understands why I do it. Often I have to remove something from her grasp for her own safety or restrict her from going somewhere. Now this vexes her to no end, evidenced by her banshee screams and crocodile tears. It breaks my heart to cause her to cry. But every time I do so, every time, in a matter of minutes she'll have forgotten and flashed me her polar cap melting smile or come to me for a hug. Sometimes immediately after I've spanked her she'll come to me for comfort! You see, she's very forgiving. She doesn't hold a grudge and seek revenge on me and all my descendants. She doesn't crawl into a corner and seethe and play the victim. She's gets hurt, she cries, she moves on. Period
Life Lesson: Let things go. Forgive people. Forgive yourself. You'll move a lot faster and higher in life when you don't let things stick to you. They only weigh you down. And you'll be a lot happier too.
4. Be curious about everything Albert Einstein once said "Never lose a holy curiosity". My daughter is the poster child for curiosity. Everything is unique, special and wonderful to her. It doesn't matter if its the television flashing all these tiny people at her or a freshly filled diaper that could make the dead wrinkle their noses. She's curious about everything, turning them every which way, banging them, shaking them, tasting them(its horrifying to see her try to taste the garbage!) She doesn't take anything for granted or simply at face value. She must explore everything. No matter how many times she sees something, there's always room for exploration. Soon, I'll have the nightmare of actually having to answer her billions of incessant questions about everything. Bracing myself.
Life Lesson: Don't take life for granted. Don't assume you know everything there is to know. Be curious about everything. Question yourself, your beliefs, your results. Smell every flower, taste every meal, try every adventure. It's through curiosity that life's greatest inventions, breakthroughs and adventures have come.
5. Don't take no for an answer "Kemi No. NO. NOOOOOOOO! Don't touch that. Leave that alone. Stay away". This is now what you hear all day long in my house. I often wonder if we're not permanently damaging her spirit by constantly saying no to everything she wants to touch or do. Here's the funny thing though. She doesn't listen. For the most part anyway. She'll keep on doing what your telling her not to. Now as you can imagine, that's pretty frustrating. But there's an upside to this. If she constantly acquiesced every time I said don't do this, don't do that, she'd never learn to walk, to develop her motor skills, learn from her painful experiences and grow. Huh! Who'd a thunk it?
Life Lesson: In life, there will always be naysayers. People who tell you NO. You can't do that. You can't be a success. You can't achieve your dreams. You gotta learn to ignore them and keep on anyway. Life will never make things easy for you(and neither will most people, or the government) but you gotta keep pressing on. Be annoyingly persistent. Life will relent eventually.
So as you can see, children are brilliantly fascinating. I read once that as much as we think we are our children's teachers, it's actually they who teach us. I agree. I'm pretty sure I still have a lot to learn from my guru daughter and to be honest, I'm terrified but equally excited.
I'll keep you posted with more insights as she decides to reveal them to my less than genius self. And for the rest of you who are also in the school of toddlers, what insights have you learned? I'd love to hear them.
Shalom
Kizito Katawonga, the Apprentice is a student of excellence and success with a passion for helping men attain the fullness of their God given potential. He is also an aspiring billionaire entrepreneur, speaker, motivator, contributor, writer, husband and father. You can find more of his insights at his blog the Apprentice:
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