Stop Looking in the Rearview Mirror

And watch where you are going!!  I wish we could remember learning to walk.  All we can do is observe those determined little souls who GI Joe belly crawl, hands and feet crawl, then spider crawl, then hold onto furniture, and then launch themselves in a two-legged stagger. 

And FALL.  Repeat the above.  FALL again.  Repeat the above.  FALL again.  Repeat the above.

But they WANT to walk.  They see that toy, person, food, thing to break across the room and they must go there!!  And walking is faster. 

So they persist.  Until they succeed.

They have the advantage of not having much of a past to look to for validation of whether or not they actually CAN learn to walk.  They just know the results they want – walking on 2 feet across the room without an adult finger to hold on to.  They are FUTURE focused - what can be.

This continues with all the things they learn to do that they have never done before like using the potty, talking, reading, riding a bike, jumping rope, praying, memorizing, speaking in front of others, and on and on.  Somewhere in our early adulthood when we finished college or job training, maybe found our special person, started a job, moved into a house, had our first pink line on that First Response test, we lost the gift of being FUTURE focused.

Now we look in the rearview mirror at our past to see if we’ve been able to do that before to decide if we can do it now.  If we have done it, then full speed ahead.  If we haven’t, then fear, doubt and often inaction occurs.  We looked to our past for validation for our future.

If we had done that at 9 months old, we’d still be crawling!!!!  Oh, my aching knees!

What if we had this thought? 

I’ve never done that before so… let’s do it!!

That is the thought and mantra of many people who stay young into their 90’s.  Haven’t done it yet?  That’s the reason to do it.

Can you borrow a pattern from your 9-month old self?

FALL.  Repeat.  FALL again.  Repeat.  FALL again.  Repeat.  FALL again.  Repeat.  SUCCESS!!

Count each fall as merely a step towards the result you want. 

Remember Thomas Edison?  He tried 10,000+ different filaments for the light bulb.  Each time the current filament didn’t light up, he’d say, “We’ve found another one that doesn’t work! Let’s try the next one.”  Each “fail” was merely a step to the end result he KNEW would happen.  Thank you, Thomas for not quitting at 9,999.  I’m particularly fond of light bulbs.

Where are you going?  Haven’t done it yet?  Doesn’t matter.  What matters is what you want, what you envision, what you KNOW will happen.  Now stop crawling, get up and walk. Maybe even RUN!