Be More Like Babies

Nov 06, 2019

Here’s the recipe for getting anything accomplished:

Total faith
Non-judgmental action/practice
No timeline

The best example of this is a baby learning to walk.

First, he has complete faith that it will happen—“everyone around me is walking, I’m sure I can too!” It never occurs to him that he can’t.

Next comes tons of trial and error. No beating himself up for any of the failures. Just getting back up again and again and again.

Lastly, there’s no expiration date. There’s no giving up if he’s not walking by next Tuesday. He just keeps at it until he’s walking.

And he does.

It’s really the best way to get anything done.

But once our adult, perfectionistic, failure-phobic brains get involved attempting something new looks more like this:

Doubt
Judgment
Expectation

First the doubt:

“What if everyone can do it but me?”

“I tried and it’s too hard.”

“My body wasn’t made for this. How I live right now isn’t that bad . . .”

Then if we get past that the judgment hits. With every stumble and fall comes the berating, the hopelessness and the disappointment. With all that negative drama, we’re lucky if we give it a second try let alone a 49th.

Seasoned adults usually have quite a few expectations when they try something new. If things don’t go as anticipated, fear takes over and paralyzes the situation. When we stop trying, we fail. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

I see it all the time when it comes to losing weight.

Doubt. Judgment. Expectation.

Those who succeed put their reservations aside, realize it’s possible and make a decision.

“If you can do it, I can do it!”

It is possible.

Weight loss is possible.

They find a way to learn from the missteps and recognize that self-compassion actually speeds up the process.

“Bagels in the break room may have won 2 out of 3 times, but what if I tried taking my coffee break outside in the fresh air instead of in that room?" Bingo.

They truly understand that time goes by whether they’re changing their eating habits or not.

“Might as well be practicing behaviors that lead to weight loss and see where I am a year from now.”

When trying anything new, we need to be more like babies.

Walking from crawling is nothing short of a miracle.

Losing weight, changing your body, is equally miraculous.

The incredible thing about trying and failing is that each attempt strengthens the exact muscles needed to be successful.

Without the falls the muscles needed to walk wouldn’t get strengthened.

Falling is the way to walking.

What if Holiday parties are the way to weight loss?

What if planning for and dealing with eating out and parties and break rooms and disappointment is the only way to learn what you need to know to lose and maintain weight?

Mic drop.

Be More Like Babies

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