Learning to Crawl

Isn't it funny how when you are born, you literally can't do anything... And I mean CAN'T it is physically impossible. We have no choice but to rely on our parents for everything. We can't even communicate our needs effectively, all we do is cry and hope they guess what is wrong!!

It would be so easy to be born and just stay that way, we don't know any different. Our excuse is "I have never done that before and I PHYSICALLY cannot do it" what an amazing excuse! But it is obvious that is not what happens. As babies we are curious, we want to see what's going on. We are nosy blighters and want what everyone else has. We are determined to get it, no matter what physical difficulties we have.

We slowly begin to strengthen our bodies, starting at the top... supporting our heads, being able to lay on our tummies, observing the world from a new angle. It is great, we can see things we didn't see before. But we want more! We are no longer content with seeing the world from a static position, we want to explore it!

Simply wanting to explore is not enough though. We don't go from laying down to crawling by just wanting alone. We do it by learning, trying, failing, learning some more, trying again and failing again... over and over again. Eventually after much trying and failing, we succeed. We go from being tiny babies literally unable to do anything but cry, to little explorers making our own way round the living room! What an incredible achievement, and it doesn't stop there. Learning to crawl was just the beginning, it open doors to new possibilities, it ignites new desires. Now we want to walk!

So, why is it that as babies, against all the odds we achieve such things? Because as babies, we don't start off with nothing, as well as crying we have the incredible ability to observe and learn. That is all we do in the beginning. Observe what everyone else is doing, watch how they move, we absorb everything around us and start with tiny actions and slowly build up. Constantly observing, learning and absorbing, never giving up, never waking up one day and saying "Meh, today I think I will have a day off"

We have this ability hard wired in to us, as we get older we seem to forget just amazing we really are and forget how we work. We forget that before anything else we are learners and observers first, then we are doers! Then failures, learners, doers, failures learners and doers until we succeed! We have all done it before, and we can all do it again. Every time you think to yourself "I can't do this" just remember that as a baby, you couldn't even lift your own head up, now look at yourself, a fully grown, walking talking success... do you think you would have even got to pre-school if your baby self said "I can't do this" then gave up?

Life is exactly the same as being a baby, starting with little more than the ability to learn, figuring out what to do, how to do it, then doing it. Realising that failing is just another way to start again with more knowledge. Use every available resource to aid your learning, never forgetting that doing and failing is also part of learning.