What one man learned from observing his kids By Contributing Author – Terry Thompson

If I could see the world through the eyes of a child, what a wonderful world this would be. - Patsy Cline

I have never been afraid to learn new things from anyone. Everyone has something to offer, and it is up to you to cultivate that learning experience. We can all learn from peers, subordinates, those we work for, and those we admire or look up to.

But, how often have you considered learning something from a child?

Children are our best teachers because they take on everything with a fearless attitude until they learn what they can or cannot do. Children are driven, motivated, and inspired to accomplish and excel in anything they set their mind to and will not quit until achieve their objective.

I sat down one day and observed my kids at play for an hour and learned the following life lessons:

Courteousness: We were at a playground, and I thought it was amazing that my children showed courtesy by letting the other kids get on the slide and other playground toys first. They even offered to help them up on the slide and picked them up when one fell down. This was a huge message as it is often easy to forget about people when they are down due to our own abilities. Be courteous; let someone else go first and help someone up when they are down.

Fearlessness: The first thing I noticed when we went to the playground was from my son. He was fearless. He put his head down and took off into the sunset after every slide, swing, obstacle, and toy there was at this park. For about an hour he just took off running, jumping, hopping, and skipping around off and on every single item at this park as if he was on top of the world. He was fearless and wasn't worried about anything going on around him other than what he was focused on. So often, we allow fear to control our minds even when nothing has happened.

Never quit until you reach your objective.

Children are extremely persistent, especially if they really want something. They will not quit doing what they are doing until they get exactly what it is they want. From crying until they get what they want to getting up after they have fallen down twenty times a child will never quit. Somehow, as adults, we tend to forget that persistence is the key if you want to achieve anything that is difficult for you to overcome. By never quitting and seeing things through to accomplishment builds self discipline, determination, and the desire to overcome.

Team work: Have you ever seen a bunch of kids trying to all climb up and slide down the same slide at a local outdoor or indoor mall playground. It's quite interesting to see all those kids struggle to do the same thing with none of them budging to lose their ground that they had worked so hard to gain. However, regardless of position on this slide they will all still try and help others get on the slide. If you are a leader and you are already at the top, what efforts are you putting forth to bring others with you. If you are still playing this "king of the mountain" game and you are not bringing others along you will find that it is lonely and miserable at the top without anyone else there to bask in that glory. Bring others with you and build your team.

Confidence: No matter what the obstacle a child will take on everything they do with confidence until they know the difference between right or wrong, what hurts and what doesn't hurt, what is positive or negative, what is right or wrong, hot or cold, and so forth? A child is still learning the differences between all these things and will continue to do them until otherwise told and/or learned. The problem we as adults face with confidence is that it is hard to overcome the fear of something until we try it first, overcome whatever barriers are in the way of us accomplishing things, learning from our mistakes so we do it better next time, and sharing or teaching our experiences with others.

Competence: As my son would navigate his way around each of the obstacles, rides, and other fun things at this park I noticed that the more competent he got at doing something the more confident he got to try new things out on each. For example: when he was trying to climb something he was struggling to get to the top, but once he got up there it was easy for him to continue to climb those obstacles faster and more confidently. And the same went for jumping off that high obstacle as well. He started with slowly trying to climb down to ultimately jumping right off the high object.

As you see, there are many things you can learn just from observing a child. It's all in the matter of how you interpret those things. So next time you are out and about with your kids or are just out by yourself, observe some kids at play and see if you notice any of these things or anything else.

Join the conversation. What life lesson(s) have you learned from a child?

Thank you, Terry Thompson for being a Contributing Author to the Relationships Matter Monday posts for Men. We greatly appreciate you sharing your own #crisistocourage4men story regarding those specific lessons learned by observing your children, which have helped with navigating successfully inevitable challenges of life.?

Thank you for reading.

Your thoughts are very appreciated.

Connect with more from Terry Thompson at:

Website: https://terrywadethompson.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terrywadethompson/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrywadethompson/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerryWThompson

LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/terry-thompson-57b89029/

Relationships Matters Monday 4Men Bio

Karen Bontrager helps 16-24-year-old men, and fellas, 25+ stuck there due to complex trauma, make permanent shifts in their behavior from merely surviving in life to thriving through transparent coaching/counseling in one-on-one conversations and in group work, and through topic sensitive trauma-informed workshops in a program called, “From Crisis to Courage.” With this ontological approach, I partner with my clients to discover their essence, (aka highest and best self) by powerfully reflecting and listening to them. My clients quickly learn how to generate self-awareness and to voice their own relationship needs in a clear, constructive way by learning key coaching techniques/evidenced based counseling approaches/tools to work past their traumatic events and addictions to move forward. The clients are then equipped to develop healthy relationships with key relationships: parents/siblings/friends, and with intimate dating partners because they have learned how to proactively use their voice.

She does a weekly Relationships Matter Monday LI article/poem/commentary for 16-24-year-old men and fellas, 25+, stuck there due to trauma, is a frequent contributor here, and has a bi-monthly podcast called Crisis to Courage to give gentlemen an honorable platform for learning how to use their voices in a way which gets respected, instead of turning to the old standbys: anger, isolation, and numbing behavior, so they can be the men they were made, formed, and created to be.

Crisis to Courage Podcast for Men Links below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1130105/listings

https://open.spotify.com/show/0hBtQMFu6eOoHAJBZVRgiQ

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMTMwMTA1LnJzcw==

https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3017583

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/crisis-to-courage-podcast-a-pl-1258925

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1372142

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/crisis-to-courage-podcast-a-platform-for-udrRN3OmV9o/