adminwalked around it, not so the child. Eyes wide with delight at such a perfect opportunity, he leapt with all the strength his four-year old legs could muster and splashed down right in the middle of it, joy evident all over his face. Then he carried on walking. No one else jumped into the puddle. Adults stepped over it and around it almost subconsciously.
Somewhere along the way we, as grown-ups, forget about jumping in puddles. Perhaps it is the dislike of having wet socks squelching, perhaps we are afraid of ruining our shoes, or perhaps we have just forgotten what it is like.
Society demands, as we grow up, that the child in us dies. The ideas of tree climbing, puddle jumping, drawing on walls, and in some cases drawing at all, fades out of us.
In many cases we are never told to stop doing these things but we do anyway in response to the societal pressures to be “normal” and conform.
There are a lot of lessons that can be learnt from children. Lessons that are learnt before they get into school systems that teach them to ask for permission to do everything.
Children know how to have fun. Children play. That’s part of childhood. Young children play all the time. Later we, as well meaning adults, take that play away and replace it with something else we call education. I’m not talking about sitting on a couch in front of a television watching cartoons — that’s not play!
Play is the fun interaction with the world and others that results in exploration, creation and learning how to do things better. Adults forget the fun part of play.
We forget to have fun at work. We get conditioned by a system that begins in school where you are told to focus on the work to do and there is no fun involved in that.
By the time we get jobs that conditioning is set in place and work is not fun, or enjoyable, or pleasurable. It’s just work.
Lesson 1: Have more fun at work
Children exhibit a belief in the impossible. For small children the magic is real. Do a trick for them and they don’t question the magic. As they get older they start to realise that is was just a trick (normally at the time that they realise that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus no longer exist).
It is this belief that they can do almost anything that gets them to the cookie jar that you have placed on top if the fridge. They want a cookie and will do the impossible to achieve the goal; moving furniture twice their size, engaging in unbelievable climbs.
Too often as adults we settle for mediocrity instead of aiming for the impossible goals. I don’t know what your personal “cookie jar” is; but . . .
Lesson 2: Aim for the cookie jar, cause there is always a way to reach it
Children do not have to be told to play. Leave a bunch of kids together with nothing to do and they will start creating their own games.
Lesson 3: Stop waiting for permission and just do it
Children grow. Ask any parent who has to replace clothes, buy new shoes, and feed the growing kid and they will tell you that children grow. Rapidly! Life is a process. The child does not necessarily notice the small daily changes till someone points it out. Use the idea of a process for yourself.
For example, you may not need to quit your job completely before starting a new venture, try switch to a mornings only option during a transition phase. Be deliberate about growth though.
Feed yourself on new experiences, new ideas. Part of the idea of process is that you may need to go through a few intermediate models of car/phone/house before you get the one you really want.
Lesson 4: Remember that growth takes time
I watched the 2012 Royal Variety Performance on television. This is an annual charity fund-raising show put together every year in the UK that features some of the current top acts in the world and is attended by a member of the royal family.
The one thing that I noticed last year was the respect held for the Queen by the older performers that was lacking in the younger adult generation.
It was a little sad to see, but made me wonder where else they may lack respect in their lives. Children, on the other hand, are pretty good at respect once they learn it. They have to be respectful, adults are bigger than them and their source of all things good (like food, clothing and sweeties). It is only later that rebellion sets in.
The respect is not fearful though, a child will happily have a conversation with royalty blissfully unaware that some adults would choke on their words. A little respect goes a long way; respect for age, for experience, for achievement, for position.
Lesson 5: Re-learn respect, but do not mistake it for fear
We are in a world that no longer rewards the rigid conformity of industrialisation. Creativity, genuine care and artistic expression are finding a fore as we embrace a world connected via technology.
People are searching for genuine connection, not just a Facebook link that never gets looked at.
There is a place for once again letting out some of those attributes that “the system” has shut out of your inner child for they will help achieve this.
Go find more puddles.
Online Reporter
dyton mupawaenda