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February 24, 2008

12 Ways to Use Childhood Wisdom to Start Living Your Life

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:18 am

Stop Growing Up for a Second

child looking up

Barring catastrophe, it happens that we all become adults. It’s the cycle of life. We find and define our journey. We leave behind our childish habits and ways. That seems the way a life is supposed to unfold.

I wonder whether we ought to reconsider before we put everything from childhood away. Young children seem to do some things far better than adults.

I’ve never met a small child on a search for personal meaning or one who questioned what life is about.

When we leave behind our childish habits, perhaps we should recall of the wisdom that we had back then.

12 Ways to Use the Childhood Wisdom to Start Living Your Life

  1. Live without question. Young children don’t wonder or worry about life’s meaning. Life is. Anxiety is a habit we learn.

  2. Own your life. Kids take for granted who they are. Ask and they’ll tell you their name. They’re on to dreaming about who they’re going to be. It sure seems to save time to do it their way.

  3. Be alive now. Small children see living and breathing as the same thing. They don’t breathe so that they can live some future day. Kids don’t want to miss a minute. How many minutes have you missed while you were working on a future goal?

  4. Have friends. Young children see everyone as a potential friend. Smiles come easily. Imagine how much friendlier the world must be.

  5. Trust today. Kids meet today without worry of what went wrong yesterday. Without thinking, they trust in an abundant and positive universe. I’ve yet to find where a circumstance changed by worrying, but I know plenty changed by belief in a better day.

  6. Have empathy. Young children care about other people, especially when other people are sad. The comfort given by a small child is humanity at its best.

  7. Try. Small children jump in to what they want to do and pull us along by the hand. Trial and error is how we learned to read.

  8. Be determined. Without determination no child would ever learn to walk. It takes a strong and clever grownup to thwart a small child with a goal.

  9. Be silly. Young children make laughter a goal. Ever make faces for the sole purpose of getting someone to laugh?

  10. Give and be fair. Kids know it’s not nice to take more than you give.

  11. Be curious and grow. Small children figure out bits about how the world works every day. Have you learned something lately by watching a bug?

  12. Listen to people who’ve been there. They ask for stories and constantly say, “Why?” Ever heard a kid say, That’s how we’ve always done it. ?

I’m not suggesting that we act immature. I’m suggesting we reclaim our childhood wisdom to be more alive. After all without childhood wisdom, we never would have gotten to be adults.

What childhood wisdom helps you live your life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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23 Comments to “12 Ways to Use Childhood Wisdom to Start Living Your Life”

  1. February 24th, 2008 at 10:40 am
    Anne Wayman said

    lol… how true, except how I had to grow up enough to learn how to handle money… but yes.

  2. February 24th, 2008 at 11:10 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Anne,
    But I bet you’re a kid enough not to be stingy. :)

  3. February 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
    hillbillyphd said

    Good stuff. I think the first one is the best
    “Live without question. Young children don’t wonder or worry about life’s meaning. Life is. Anxiety is a habit we learn. I think that all the rest of them support that one. Anxiety is something we learn by struggling with our childhood wisdom of sharing, having empathy, trying new things, losing our sense of trust and determination, remembering the power of giving of oneself etc…. Good stuff. May we in all pursuits remember the power of hanging on to some of our childhood values (without becoming childish)

  4. February 24th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
    moggy said

    I would like to add one….don’t be afraid to make mistakes

  5. February 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
    RayD said

    Trial and error is also how we learn to type comments on blogs ;)

    Thanks for reminding us of the proper use of the inner child, Liz!

  6. February 24th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi RayD!
    Thanks for hearing what I’m saying! I really appreciate that!

    I’m all about learning what I already know/knew to make my life better. :)

  7. February 24th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
    SaiF said

    Hey Liz,

    Thanks for this great post! I’ve always known that acting like a child but behaving like an adult is the key (dare i say to life?)

    Maybe that’s why Farrah Gray made his first million when he was 14. No surprise since a child’s traits are all winners. You might want towatch Farrah Gray’s interview here.

    My childhood wisdom would be trying anything and EVERYTHING instead of fearing the unknown.

    Thinking like that has helped me alot Liz.

    Thanks for sharing all these traits again, my friend!

    To CANI,

    SaiF
    The World’s First Teen
    Personal Development VBlogger

  8. February 24th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi SaiF!
    Knowing who we are is the key.

    Some traits that we have are universal. They are what we know as children and carry forward or not. We recognize them in each other. Often they are the places where we, as friends, choose to meet.

    Some traits are those we learn and think make us clever. . . .

  9. February 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
    SaiF said

    Liz! (Gd morning!)

    “Some traits are those we learn and think make us clever..”

    Can I clarify that with you? Are you saying that as we go through life, we tend to pick up traits that we think will make us clever and thus more socially accepted and popular?
    (Since being clever seems to be what everyone wants to be)

    I believe some of the traits that we choose to adopt tend to hold us back instead of progress us.. What do you think?

    To CANI,

    SaiF
    The World’s First Teen
    Personal Development VBlogger

  10. February 24th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    #3
    Hi Rocky!
    Has it been so long! Great to see you here in the comment box again!

    I’m with you . . . the first is the one that defines the rest for me, too. I learned that being anxious was just my way of trying to protect myself from the things I was making up — it’s just worrying taking to a higher level, not action.

    Faith. Living without question, believing in ourselves and in the universe is a powerful way to live a life. I’m still earning my hillbillyPhD. :)

  11. February 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Saif!
    I’m not necessarily saying clever is a good thing. Clever is quick, smart, and wily, but doesn’t often leave others a place to stand. I believe that more flies come to honey.

    Yes, we do pick up habits that don’t work for us. Most of them, when we analyze them, work to defend us from threats that don’t exist.

  12. February 25th, 2008 at 5:10 am
    amypalko said

    I love this post, Liz!! It reminded me of a post I wrote a while back about what we can learn from babies. One of the points that I mentioned there was this:
    “Instinctiveness: Babies rely upon their instincts much more than adults do. As we grow and develop, we acquire different skills which help us to evaluate and formulate responses. For small children, though, they are tuned into that frequency which tells them more about a person or a situation than all our acquired skills put together can achieve. And yet, I do believe that the frequency doesn’t disappear; it’s still there for us to tune into when we need it.”
    Thanks for the great reminders that childlike is not necessarily akin to childish, and that there are enormous benefits to engaging with our childlike ways.

  13. February 25th, 2008 at 6:17 am
    Stephen Hopson said

    Liz:

    Good reminder for all of us to reclaim some of the child-like wonders of life. Why not? We’ve grown up to repress many of our dreams because of other “well-meaning” adults who have told us to be more realistic or that we aren’t capable of doing such and such.

    It’s time to reclaim our childhood characteristics and truly live our lives the way the way they were intended.

  14. February 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    #4
    Hi Moggy!
    Welcome! Yeah, risks and mistakes and change are all part of life. Consider it added. :)

  15. February 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Amy!
    Yeah, getting back to what we already know can add a deeper dimension to who we are and how well we navigate the world. We carry so much information and instinct that we often set aside. :)

  16. February 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    I’m with you, Stephen!
    There’s no reason that realistic can’t be wonderful too!

  17. February 25th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
    RayD said

    Regarding being clever: one day I hope to be wise enough that I don’t need to be clever any longer…

  18. February 25th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi RayD,
    I found that when I gave up being clever, folks started calling me wise. Go figure! :)

  19. February 25th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
    Barbara Rozgonyi, Wired PR Works said

    When I want to experience real live wonder, all I have do is strike up a conversation with a little person and listen.

  20. February 25th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Barbara!
    That’s one powerful observation.

  21. March 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
    CatherineL said

    Hi Liz - these are interesting points. It makes you wonder if some of the things we call growth is really growth at all, as we seem to unlearn the useful stuff.

    You’re excellent at making people think by the way. I’ve learnt something every time I’ve visited this blog.

  22. March 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Catherine!
    Yeah! Sometimes I feel like I wish I were Merlin. Growing up backwards seems to have some real advangages. :)

    Thank you for your lovely words of encouragement. :)

  23. July 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
    Jamie Harrop | Young Entrepreneur | Video Blog » Childhood Memories - Join me on an Adventure said

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