I had a conversation with my mom recently about the fact that I never learned how to crawl. Not a joke. As a little baby, I went from sitting to walking (well, running if you ask my mom).
I’ve heard this many times, but it struck me differently this time.
In the first year of my life, I was fearless. I was willing to run at what I wanted (literally) even though it meant i would fall down 598345 times.
This got me thinking: When was it that I started to second guess myself? When did I learn that failure wasn’t an option and to shy away from anything I might not be good at?
I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I do know this: Now, whenever I’m afraid to do something because I might not be good at it, I picture that little girl standing up and running at her goals. If she can have that kind of courage, so can I.
How often do you find yourself imagining all of the things that could go wrong when you are faced with something new? Our brains are so quick to think about falling off the bike at a new spin class, or belting out the wrong note in choir, or tripping on stage during a talk, or showing up to a party and not having anyone to talk to.... The problem with all of these thoughts is that we let them convince us that not trying is the safer option. If we never give that speech, at least we can control the fact that we will never trip on stage in front of an audience of people. But, if we live our whole lives protecting ourselves from the worst outcomes that we can imagine, what are we going to have to show at the end? Are we going to be proud to say “I was always safe”? I don’t think so. Staying safe means missing out on so many things that you might really love.
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Vanessa (Tuesday, 19 January 2021 09:16)
I never crawled either!! Now I had messed up hips because of it...no pain no gain? I love the idea of being fearless and skipping the crawling stage �.