5 things you learn from your toddler

We have become so engrossed in our daily life routine that we have forgotten to experience the small things that brings happiness. We keep waiting for a big thing to happen that will make us happy like getting an onsite opportunity for work, salary hike, buying a big dream house, car, etc.  In pursuit of chasing our big dreams are we neglecting the small things on the way that bring cheers to our life?

There is no need to go to any Guru for life gyan, the training starts at home. Yes, learn from your kids.

In very subtle way they teach us a lot. They take life as it comes and are always happy no matter what. Other than just being cute and amusing us with their daily new activities they give us a lot of things to learn that we adults just neglect.

1. Let it go: We have noticed our young ones that one minute they cry out loud over a fight with their friend and the next minute they just forget and become cheerful and play with the same friend.
Lesson Learnt: They know how to let go of things and forget easily. If we get into a disagreement of fight with our friend, family or colleague we keep it in our hearts forever, stop talking to that person. Just one time try to let it go. Even if it is the other person’s mistake say sorry and move on.  This will reduce an extra baggage for us to carry in our mind and heart forever.

2. Passing smile:  My 2 year old daughter smiles at everyone she meets, whether it is any maid, neighbor, or the security guard and she gets a smile back in return. Toddlers know how to spread smile wherever they go.

Lesson Learnt:  I have noticed this several time, people enter the lift and get submerged in their phone. They start reading emails and browsing phone. They might have already read that email 10 times but still they do it to kill the lift time and avoid any eye contact with others. Try to smile at strangers you meet in the lift or at work or anywhere else.  You never know what kind of butterfly effect you might end up creating by spreading smile and how you end up contributing to this world being a better place to live in. It also helps release a chemical called endorphins – that triggers a positive feeling in your body along with several other benefits, read here for more: http://www.sunwarrior.com/news/15-health-benefits-of-smiling/

3. Carefree:  Have you ever noticed how carefree our toddlers are? They do not care what time of the day it is, what activities they need to do. All they need is timely feeding them, cleaning them, play time and putting them to bed. The life goes smooth.

Lesson Learnt:  I know we cannot be as carefree as them. We have lot of responsibilities, daily routine task to do, earn the livelihood and make sure our children have better future, there is endless list of tasks that keep hovering around in our mind.  I say it again we cannot be carefree always but what about sometimes? I don’t mean waiting for holidays to go for expensive vacations and till then keep carrying all the burden of the TODO list. How about try to spend some carefree time daily? Figure out your way of doing it. I like to spend time with friends, pursing a hobby, or just not doing anything. It helps me to relax and rejuvenate to come back to the chaos.



4. Good Communication: Our toddlers communicate pretty well through their easy to pick expressions and endless chatter.  When they are shy they express and when they are upset, they cry the hell out. Straightforward communication and no complication of guessing what they are thinking.

Lesson Learnt: If we also start communicating with our spouses, our friends, relatives, colleagues, half of our problems and issues in any relation will become nonexistent. Problems arise and become severe when we keep things to ourselves and shy away from communicating our feelings.   Remember the Iceberg analogy that is used in many leadership training? 

(Photo credit: Carolina Rojas)

The iceberg is just 10% visible the rest stays underneath the water. Same case with us humans, our actions our behavior is just 10% of what we are and what leads to this 10% is hidden in our past experiences, our background, and our culture. If we do not communicate well it will just make the matter worse for others and affect our relationship with others.

To ready more on iceberg model refer to this link: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/competency-iceberg-model.htm

5. Simplicity and honesty: Toddlers are a simplified form of us parents. Simple in actions, simple in emotions, honest and simple to deal with. All the above four points along with their truthfulness are the major factor in making them so simple, so adorable. If my toddler breaks anything she just admits it and stands on the side of the wall realizing she has done something wrong.  

Lesson Learnt: Let’s stop complicating things in life. Try to live a honest life and bring simplicity to our actions. Being truthful to our self and the people around us saves us a lot burden on our mind remembering the lie. Truth does not need to be remembered.

We are grooming our children to be competitive, fast learner, active in sports, become like us and better than us. We want them to be more successful than us and whatever we could not do or achieve they are our hope. In this race of teaching them we ignore what we can learn from them- The very basics that we have forgotten long time ago.