Writing Lessons From Babies

Going back to the roots

Failing is a learning process, and it is as natural as it is necessary.

In this post, I will be using the analogy of children learning to walk to drive home the need for the right mindset when dealing with obstacles in writing.

First, I will identify three factors that influence children’s grit to meet their goal of walking, then trace it to how it can be applied to meeting our goals even as adults.

The three factors are:

The Support system (providing encouragement and sometimes cushioning their fall).

The Motivation (from the people they see walking).

The Determination (to be just like the people they look up to).

The Support System

Children fall when learning to walk, but no one mocks them for their inability to get it right the first few times. Instead, at almost every attempt, they are met with cheers and encouragement.

This, in turn, motivates them to keep trying.

It is very important to have a support system; people who encourage you when you lapse momentarily, and occasionally, something to remind you of the reason you started. This makes it easier to regain your footing and continue the process.

However, having no friends (a.k.a Support system) is not an excuse. While it is important, it is not impossible to do without.

As an adult, you can also be mindful and train your mind to see the bigger picture.

For this, you must understand bad things are bound to happen. When you realize that things are likely to go wrong, you can steady yourself for whatever challenges you might face in the future.

The Motivation

The people whom the children see walking serve as their mentors.

In the same vein, it is necessary to have a mentor.

In addition to inspiring you to be just like them, having successful mentors (who have been in the same position as you), gives you a perspective of what you might be doing wrong.

And by constantly training your eyes on them, you will be able to copy their strengths and avoid their failures.

The Determination

Finally, the determination to be just like the people they look up to comes in.

All around, they are surrounded by adults who are walking and it spurs them into action.

Also, they know they can do it because the people they look up to are all walking.

As seen in babies, life is really simple: Fall, get up. Fall again, get back up.

It is said that the hardest part of accomplishing anything is taking the first step, and while that might be true, taking multiple steps will make you more resilient.

Here are three lessons I have learned from the resilience of children that can be adopted in Writing:

1. Write scared

2. Never get complacent in writing

3. Always take opportunities to improve

Write scared

To be a good writer, we have to learn from the foolhardiness of children. As they learn to walk scared — knowing that they will fall, we must learn to write scared.

A child doesn’t think too hard; a child learns from repetition. They fail and repeat the learning process until they get what they want.

In the same way, we shouldn’t be discouraged from writing because we are scared to write rubbish.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

-Michelangelo

Taking the cue from Michelangelo, the story is there…we only have to learn better ways to get the message out.

When we write consistently, we learn what should not be done, and what must be done better. But to learn from our mistakes, we must have our eyes on something better, something worth emulating.

2. Never get complacent

There isn’t a topmost stage in writing because there is always an opportunity to improve the art.

And while we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for not learning quickly enough, we should always strive to improve. We shouldn’t be comfortable in only one spot just because everything is okay at that level.

A child does not get comfortable with crawling because that serves their purpose at that particular point in time. They don’t get comfortable with being carried wherever, every time. Instead, they strive to do things on their own; Reach for things on higher cabinets, and support themselves with the walls to walk instead of rolling on the floor.

We should strive to improve, test for higher challenges, and be prepared to fail. Learn from our mistakes and try again.

And keep trying again until we scale that stage.

3. Opportunities

We should learn to take opportunities as they come. Particularly those that are in line with our dreams and aspirations.

We should never leave it to those who we think are better. We can always learn along the way; it would make the learning process faster because the stakes have been increased.

This is similar to dangling a shiny toy in front of a child -the child’s speed increases as their determination rises.

Opportunities should speed up our actions and not slow us down.

Final note

When we were children, we fell hundreds of times before we learned to walk. So what makes it difficult as adults to go through the same learning process?

When did the idea of failing become scary, when it is clear as day that we are bound to fail a lot of times before we get things right?

Maybe it is time we go back to the roots, and relearn our first lesson of success — the importance of multiple failures.