Born With It

Being the parent of a small child is an education in and of itself. First, I earned an undergraduate degree in spelling. You have to be creative when you don't want your child to know where you hide the C-A-N-D-Y. I also proudly hold advanced degrees in music (who knew Barney the purple dinosaur had so many songs?) and biology (I can fairly reliably hold a dirty diaper and my lunch simultaneously). However, watching my youngest child as she learned how to walk taught me perhaps the most important lesson of all. She was born with every trait she needed to be wildly successful in life. She was born with it…as were we all.

My daughter started trying to walk when she was about nine months old. Once she realized that she could move faster on two feet than four, she became relentless. She practiced every single day. She was undeterred by failure. One day as I watched her progress, I counted how many times she fell. That day, she fell down 27 times. So by my estimate, she fell down 4,860 times in the first six months of her quest to walk. Do you know how many times she got up? 4,860 times! It started me thinking. What could I accomplish if I was willing to fail 4,860 times before I achieved success? What would you achieve if you would be willing to fail even 10 times before you would quit? An-y-thing! I didn’t have to tell her to be relentless when pursuing her goals. She was…born with it.

My little girl is wise beyond her years. She knew instinctively that she needed help to learn how to walk. Instinctively, she reaches for the support she needs when she is walking…the chair, the couch…her daddy’s hand. Thank goodness she is not too proud to accept help. She learned to walk faster as a result. Watching her again had me thinking about her wisdom. Many times, my pride prevented me from asking for help when I needed it. In those cases, my ego stayed in tact, but my development was stunted. I watched great person after great person credit mentors for their success, but yet there was a time in my life when I loved my pride more than my progress. Perhaps you felt the same way at some point in your life. Thankfully, my daughter was wiser than I was. I didn’t have to tell her to accept help when it was offered. She was…born with it.

I love watching my daughter walk. She is just as cute as she wants to be when she is taking those baby steps. But sometimes the result is not so divine. Sometimes her trip ends in a manner that is less than dignified, as she falls down in a heap. But do you know what she says most the time after she falls down? Ha-ha-ha-ha! She doesn’t care what anyone thinks. She does not even acknowledge anyone who may feel her failure is funny. Potential critics and “haters” do not even enter her consciousness. For the third time, I marveled at her wisdom. There have been times when I have stunted my own development by being unwilling to fail in public. Too many times I have chosen fear over greatness. I didn’t have to tell my daughter not to worry about what “they” think. She was born with it.

After watching my daughter learn how to walk, I learned a very important lesson about success. My role is to stay out of the way! She already has all the character traits she needs to be the greatest “whatever” she wants to be, the greatest “whatever” of all time. Perhaps we all have to stay out of our own way as well.

We all know that the relentless pursuit of goals is the only way to make them a reality. Yet we choose to be less than relentless sometimes. Why? We were relentless once. We had everything we needed. We were…born with it.

We all know that we can’t do anything great alone. Even Tiger Woods has a coach. Yet sometimes we don’t seek and accept the help we need. Why? We were willing to be coached at one point. We had everything we needed. We were…born with it.

We all know that we get no closer to our goals by listening to our critics, the “haters.” Yet we allow them to govern our behavior. Why? There was a time when we didn't care what others thought. We had everything we needed. We were…born with it.

So, whenever you are at a loss in life, remember that you were born with everything you need. You already have the stuff! The stuff of greatness. If you just remember that which you knew instinctively as a child, you can be everything that you are supposed to be. You were born with it!