Confidence & Courage Tips…To Help You Realize Your Dreams 2
Run Freely
(A Lesson About Courage)
By Gabriel Daniels
One afternoon, many years ago, I went to pick up my mother from
work. I got there a little early so I parked the car by the curb, across
the street from where she worked, and waited for her.
As I looked outside the car window to my right, there was a small park
where I saw a little boy, around one and a half to two years old,
running freely on the grass as his mother watched from a short
distance. The boy had a big smile on his face as if he had just been set
free from some sort of prison. The boy would then fall to the grass, get
up, and without hesitation or without looking back at his mother, run
as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, as if nothing
had happened.
At that moment, I thought to myself, “Why aren't most adults this
way?” Most adults, when they fall down (figuratively speaking), make
a big deal out of it and don't even make a second attempt. They would
be so embarrassed that someone saw them fall that they would not try
again. Or, because they fell, they would justify to themselves that
they're just not cut out for it. They would end up too afraid to attempt
again for fear of failure.
However, with kids (especially at an early age), when they fall down,
they don't perceive their falling down as failure, but instead, they
treat it as a learning experience (as just another
result/outcome). They feel compelled to try and try again until they
succeed. (The answer must be...they have not associated “falling
down” with the word “failure” yet. Thus, they don't know how to feel
the state which accompanies failure. As a result, they are not
disempowered in any way. Plus, they probably think to themselves
that it's perfectly okay to fall down, that it's not wrong to do so. In
other words, they give themselves permission to make mistakes,
subconsciously. Thus, they remain empowered.)
While I was touched by the boy's persistence, I was equally touched
by the manner in which he ran. With each attempt, he looked so
confident...so natural. No signs of fear, nervousness, or of being
discouraged—as if he didn't give a care about the world around him.
His only aim was to run freely and to do it as effectively as he could.
He was just being a child—just being himself—being completely in the
