Five Traits Of Mega Success We Can Learn From Children.
By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)
Most of the times, it is assumed that adults ought to teach children what to do, not the other way around. After all adults are smart and experienced and children are naive. What can you possibly learn from them, nothing, right?
Wrong! A child is in many ways immensely superior to adults. The way children can pick up new accents, learn new skills and technology can simply not be matched by an adult. And this is just how they are superior aptitude wise, in reality they also possess many psychological characteristics which are admirable. We are all born with these characteristics but as we grow, we tend to leave them behind and conform to the real world.
But maintaining these characteristics can lead us to great success and help us have a fulfilling life. Here are 5 amazing things we can learn from children which will help us achieve the same.
1) Creativity
Children are unbelievably creative. They can think of things the way we adults just cannot.
A Father was reading a magazine and his little daughter every now and then distracted him. To keep her busy, he tore one page on which was printed the map of the world. He tore it into pieces and asked her to go to her room and put them together to make the map again. He was sure she would take the whole day to get it done. But the little one came back within minutes with perfect map. When he asked how she could do it so quickly, she said, “Dad, there is a man’s face on the other side of the paper, I made the face perfect to get the map right!”
It’s amazing the way children think! The truth of life is that no matter how hard a problem you face seems on its surface, there is always a simple way to solve it. Approach the problem like a child and think creatively like them, quite often you will find the solution is not as hard as you think it is.
2) Curiosity
Children are unbelievably curious. We were too as children. We wanted to know the answers to everything. We asked a million questions to adults around us.
We wanted to know the limits of the universe. We wanted to know why certain animals behaved the way they do. We pretty much wanted to know everything. Every tiny little detail appealed to us and we wanted to figure out and get to the bottom of it. This curiosity, while annoying to adults helped us grow tremendously and we quickly learned almost everything that interested us.
As adults, however, we lost that childlike wonder and curiosity. We stopped asking questions and because we stopped asking questions, we stopped getting answers. We only became interested in grinding through day to day life, making money, having relationships and going to sleep. Things becomes a routine and monotonous and in fact many of us end up hating our lives
Sir Alec Jeffreys, the founder of DNA Testing told me in an interview for my movie Carve Your Destiny that retaining one’s childlike wonder and curiosity is amongst the biggest characteristics for success. Because the moment you lose the curiosity to learn, you become less of a conscious being and more of a robot, just going through a meaningless life, doing what you are told to do by a higher authority and waiting for the grave lying at the end.
3) Forgiveness and not holding grudges
As adults, we are usually not forgiving. If someone says something to us or we have an argument with someone, it is amazing how long we can keep carrying that grudge. We are just not willing to let it go.
When I was a child there was some incident amongst my relatives which led to two people having grudges and not talking to each other for almost ten years.
As a child, I just could not believe how this was possible. After all I had arguments and fights with kids my age every day and the next day or two days after it, I forgot about it totally and became best friends again. The same was truly the case with other children my age as well. They too forgave and forgot. I thought my relatives were nuts for not talking.
And yet as I grew up, I too started holding grudges for longer when it felt like someone had disrespected me. Holding grudges is certainly nothing to be proud of.
As adults, as far as possible we too should try to forgive and forget. The only problem is it is a two way process and as long as someone else treats us with disrespect, we are likely to react the same way. If both people can rise beyond their differences and forgive like children, the world would be a much happier place.
4) Persistence
Children can be incredibly persistent to demand what they want to the point it can get incredibly annoying for adults. But guess what, most of the times, they eventually do get what they want.
An adult would probably go quiet after being rejected a few times. But a child just won’t shut up and will keep trying until you cave in.
Just go to any market or store and see the way children convince their parents to give what they want. They will cry, they will bang their head on the floor, they will throw a fit but they will get what they want. Many times they are able to even get things out of people not related to them!
As a kid, I wanted some candy but I didn’t have enough cash in my pocket. The shopkeeper said it wasn’t enough so reluctantly, I began to walk away. Then my brother went to the same shop and demanded the same candy. The shopkeeper said the same so my brother started crying in front of him. The shopkeeper took out the candy and gave it to him! I was super jealous of him, but hey the tactic worked!
As an adult obviously crying or throwing a fit will only make you look bad and the strategies children use will probably backfire on you! But if there is one thing you can learn from them is to never take no for an answer, or at least try your very best to come up with different strategies to ensure you get your desired result. Don’t quit! At least not so soon!
5) Dreaming Big
The first step to achieving something huge is dreaming huge and most kids do. Ask any child what they want to become and no one will say, I hope to be doing a 9 to 5 job where my boss shouts at me all day!
Kids truly believe nothing is impossible and that is evident in the kinds of dreams that they have. Never does a kid dream of doing a job he or she hates. He always dreams of giant, lofty dreams, like becoming an astronaut, a billionaire, a president or a Miss Universe.
At the very least, they dream of growing up and doing something they love, like becoming an artist or a musician, or a pilot or actor or anything else.
We too dreamed of doing the same, but as we grew up we were told that we should stop dreaming and become realistic. And to some extent it was true, because life does hit you in the face in the ways that you do not expect.
But it does not mean you should give up on your dream or stop believing all together, because belief is the first ingredient to any kind of success. Those who believe that something is possible put in the effort to make it possible and consequently sometimes, they make it a reality. On the other hand, those who believe that something isn’t possible, automatically assume that all their efforts will lead to failure. So they don’t try at all and as a result they fail by default!
Never stop believing. As Henry Ford said, whether you think can or you can’t do something, you are usually right either way.
About the Author
Anubhav Srivastava is an author, speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields. It has been seen by over 1 Million People on Youtube. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
For one on one consulting or a motivational workshop at your organization please email anubhav101@gmail.com . If you would like to write a guest blog post on Anubhavsrivastava.com you contact me on the same email address.
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