Have you ever wondered why as a child you had all the will in the world to be a superhero or just somebody absolutely fantastic and now as a grown up you seem to have lost the will to live? We’ve lost our motivation and don’t know how to get it back. Why? Children are human too (yes they are, if yours aren’t then you need to get your own DNA checked out) so what’s the difference? Well kids have no responsibility and we have all the worries in the world and therefore no time for anything else. That’s the answer I hear so often from adults. Wrong answer! I’m probably going to shock you here but children are more responsible than we are as adults or to use a term from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People “response-able”.
They cry over spilt milk but very soon they get over it, then they go and break your prized vase, get into trouble, cry again and then go and find something else that’s caught their attention. They turn the playroom upside down and break their toys and get into more trouble and look sad for a while until another toy they missed has caught their attention. They run around laughing and shouting and making noise and get told off once again, they get upset but then they get over it and find something else which entertains them. They run around without a care for the obstacles in their paths, they fall down, cry for a bit and get up and start running around again forgetting earlier that they fell down doing the very thing and running over the same ground they just covered.
Imagine an adult has spilt milk – we curse and wipe it up and slam the milk bottle back in the fridge, huh, don’t want it now. (What a tantrum).
We break our most prized vase and then regret it for life. Well it had to break someday and now it has, so get over it. Yes it was worth something but all things have an end, even human lives so please don’t spend your life pining away over an inanimate object.
Kids know better than to do this. We turn the rooms upside down looking for something we’ve mislaid, our own fault first of all and then we’re mad at ourselves because now we have to tidy up the mess we’ve created. Kids only turn the room upside down when they’re having fun or they’re exploring. Now the only time we laugh at ourselves is when we fall over but then we feel embarrassed – kids don’t bother with the latter emotion. They cry remember, get up and run again.
Now don’t say we as adults are more mature and deal with the same situations differently. We as adults are more able at choosing how we respond to all the same situations however it is the children who show themselves as more response-able; they are able to choose how they react and respond to a situation and each time they come out stronger and laughing. We could do well to choose to take motivation from them and choose not to think negatively on a situation. “A child can always teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.” (Paulo Coelho: The Fifth Mountain) Next time you run out motivation and wonder where to look to for it, look to the little things; look to children who never give up no matter how many times adults scold them to stop.
They choose to carry on, they choose to have another go when you’ve turned your back, they choose to get up again where we give up and that is how they learn how to walk, run, climb those stairs, open doors and lock themselves in the bathroom. They constantly challenge themselves and dare to try new things, why don’t you?!
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