Ready, Set, Go!

When children are asked to try a new activity, they often dive in headfirst.

While they may experience some trepidation, they feel more excitement, anticipation, and glee. Adults on the other hand are significantly more skeptical when it comes to trying something new. 

Typically, this is because adults have experienced more of life — and consequently more of life’s ups and downs. They have collected reasons to not take a leap forward. They think, “if it is not guaranteed to be a success, I should not try it.” This mindset helps them feel protected and avoid any potential failure, shame, or judgment. 

It is understandable why adults adopt this attitude. It relates to one of our most primal wishes: feeling safe. It is also reasonable that people don’t wish to be naive about possible outcomes of something not working out or going the way they hoped.

But imagine looking at this a whole new way.

What if adults pushed past their desire to feel protected and instead trusted in their innate strengths to carry them to new heights? What if instead of collecting evidence for why something may not work out, adults drew on occasions from when they excitedly jumped into new waters, were strong, or successfully embraced life at its fullest? What if that evidence weighed more than anything else?

Remember that as an adult you still have the child in you. Adults can be detectives maintaining that child-like spirit, finding reasons and collecting evidence from the past to leap rather than stay back. Focusing on our strengths and positive experiences that have helped us before can make anything novel feel way more in reach.