Learning how to live life from a 3-month-old toddler!

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A baby in the house!

The question that would hit your mind on reading the topic name is what would a toddler teach you who has only learnt to breathe and cry to call someone so far. Yes, they are the most innocent and cute ones but can’t talk, walk, eat by themselves, and also can’t even move by themselves. I was of the same impression till I met my cute little niece. Being the youngest in my family, I had never interacted much with kids and especially toddlers. I had played with a few kids in the locality but never had one at home. So the interactions with them had been just for an hour’s play or so every time. And then when I became a Mama (Maternal uncle) I realised how much fun it is to have a baby all day at your place.

I have to admit I was very excited to live with a baby for the first time… In the first three months, I observed her reactions to know how a certain behaviour is imbibed in us and slowly started learning some good qualities from her too. Gradually, I realised that understanding human nature was just a by-product. More than the research I had a lot to learn from her. I saw how hard she tried to learn new activities of daily routine which I have mastered long back. Those innumerable attempts comprising daily hard work and perseverance that too by such a small baby was a surprise for me…

How she learnt

She observed us all day and tried to be a part of us. She laughed when we laughed without knowing the reason; she tried hard to talk, made different voices from her mouth or blew air thinking that was how we learn to talk. A month later, I observed she even tried to get up on her own. She wanted to turn when kept on a bed and raise her head which was practically not possible for a baby of her age as her body wasn’t developed yet. But she kept trying daily without getting disappointed or angry. On failing it, she would rather have a notorious smile on her face as if it was all a game for her.

That made me realise how easily we get frustrated when things do not work in our favour. Adults and teens in my social circle are those who are ambitious, confident, talented & enthusiastic initially yet impatient and those who give up very soon… maybe in just one or two attempts. Two interviews and a friend of mine compromises with a lower-level profile leaving her dream job, three auditions and one quits trying to become an actor. We lose hope so easily for things that don’t happen just within a short period of starting to work on them.

The sceptical adulthood Vs. The optimistic childhood

We are matured enough to understand what we need and how to achieve it still we leave things halfway, perhaps the reason would be the failure experienced in the past and the analysis that our calculative mind does to predict the results… we become more and more result-oriented as we grow old and negative too because we have tried and failed several times in life. The disappointment after giving a try wholeheartedly becomes unbearable for us now. Soon our approach is to go for something which is easily possible than something we really want in life but is difficult to achieve saying, “I know it won’t happen, it’s too good to be real…”

But this toddler was new to the world, and she didn’t have the capability to predict the odds of failure, nor did she know what minimum capabilities are needed, all she knew was that if she kept trying to learn it, sooner or later she would succeed because we were acting as live examples for her (humans who can walk, talk, eat and also sing so effortlessly). She understood that if someone could do this, even she could someday… This was when I noticed that I have such achievements from my past too where I was inexperienced and gave my full try without worrying about the results or you can say with full confidence of the success and it worked for me. I think it’s better to be stubborn and naïve at times like her which might actually work because we would never stop attempting till we succeed. Sometimes having less knowledge of the success ratio actually helps you to succeed because you work on it without the fear of losing.

The realisation

Another amazing fact which I realised was just like she was working hard to train herself for the basics, even I would have done when I was a toddler and succeeded which is why I can stand, run, eat, talk, sing, etc. today which means, even I would have strived for months to learn the basics which I can do so easily today. All that was a challenge for me back then and I succeeded them all by myself. All of us did. Perhaps we were those sperms which succeeded to reach the eggs first which was how we were born… Each one of us!

Somewhere I could rewind to my past efforts and my naïve self, thanks to this toddler at my place who lived with us for a short span of time. Today she is almost three years old and yet an enthusiast to learn new things. She puts full efforts without caring about its benefits and is confident enough to keep trying till she masters it while I guess being a twenty-seven-year-old; I calculate the benefits, practical possibilities and success ratio before getting into something…

Ironically, the experience and knowledge which should help me get through actually refrained me from succeeding or even trying things I wanted to. The maturity which we possess at times discourages us from doing what we want to but now this toddler has taught me to keep trying even a hundred times but not quit till I achieve my goals. I learnt that it’s all about the positive approach which makes us true winners in life!

“You are a loser only when you accept your defeat and stop trying…”

– A quote from my book ‘That Unique Power

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