I’m a Big Baby

Every time I start a new project or try something I’ve never done before, like many of us, I feel clumsy, frustrated, and seriously tempted to abandon it. The discomfort is undeniable.

To interrupt the urge to throw in the towel, I find it helpful to remember watching my nephews learn how to walk. They wobbled, they fell, and we – parents and I – laughed and encouraged them. We knew falling was part of the process. We knew they would try again and eventually get it. What we didn’t do is look at them with disbelief and say, “I don’t get it. You almost had it yesterday, and today you’re a mess.”

I try to do that for myself. Rather than resorting to self-criticism, I try to ask why I had trouble with a task or an interaction. Only looking at the situation long enough to take some useful information from it. When I can learn from being wobbly and falling, I can skip reprimanding myself and move forward, try again or let it go.

Action: When you find yourself stumbling today, ask how you’d respond to a struggling child. Offer yourself the same patience.

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