Babysteps

Learning to walk combines muscle control, co-ordination and balance. It is an incredibly complex process and one that we take for granted, though it took us an average of 15 months to learn all the skills needed to suddenly be walking. Something we don't even think about now, we just stand up and move off, one foot in front of the other.

When watching the babies at work grow and develop it is a constant reminder to me how we have to put all the little things together to get the big rewards. As well as accept that we may have failures and set backs on the way and despite that, not give up.

Last week I was in the crèche I turned round to see a little 9 month old girl standing up and clutching on to the wall, with a look of delight and puzzlement on her face. This was the first time we had seen her pull herself to standing and as I was in the middle of congratulating her, she fell and cried! A cuddle and the world was soon a better place. This will not be the last time she falls in the process of learning to walk, with some inner determination she will continue to try and try again.

Likewise a little boy who is taking his first tentative steps is also falling over on a regular basis, but he will always get up and try again.
Why is at adults we are so much more likely to give up on something that we are learning to do? I went skiing one time and kept falling over. I was able to acknowledge that this was part of the learning and if I continued I would get better at it. I enjoyed the day and would like to learn properly, however the Alps are only a couple of hours away and I haven't rushed back and until I go back and spend time learning all the little bits and putting them all together, I know I will never be able to ski gracefully down the slopes.

We need to learn from the children, not only how they get up and go again but also to put the stages together bit by bit, take our time (for the really big goals) and not give up in order to succeed. We need to celebrate the baby steps on the way and allow ourselves time to become so skilled it becomes second nature.
In order to help our self motivation we also need to look to our support networks for help and encouragement - friends, families, colleagues and if needed professional teachers, trainers and coaches, to help us on the way to taking our first steps.