Learning To Walk Again – A Battle With Flare Ups

Imagine.

You find yourself on the hard wood floor, unable to get up no matter how hard you try.

You make it to your hands and knees, but than the confusion sets in. Your body doesn’t have the strength to take you very far. You try to yell out for help, but your mouth can’t find the words. After a few short groans, you almost give up.

“No”, you think. “I have to do this”.

A few minutes go by, and its time to try again. You start by getting on your stomach, and force your left knee underneath you. If you are going to do this, the time is now before you get too tired.

Your hands plant hard on the floor, and your second knee finds it way underneath you.

Half way there. There is no turning back now.

You find a small table that is just close enough to grab for support. Slowly you move into an awkward squatting position and raise up next to the table.
You look up and manage to get one word out, “Mama”.

Have you ever thought of a baby’s resilience?

With chronic illness, I think we can all to often relate to the struggle in this story.  Personally, I have had to re-learn to walk, and it is not an easy task.

Just last week, my nephew learned to walk. One of the greatest achievements of his young life.

There is a lot to be said about a baby’s resilience. As a baby we learned to never give up, and that the only success comes from trial and error.

I see how proud my sister and brother in-law are while my nephew grows to be a toddler. They encourage him, cheer him on, and most of all they love him through the process.

Below are a few tips we can all take away from seeing a baby learn new tasks:

1. Set big goals. I recently read the 10x rule by Grant Cardone about setting extreme goals. In the book he makes a great point. If you always set achievable goals, you will never be satisfied. Set HUGE goals that seem out of your reach. We become happier by striving for greatness. Imagine if a baby decided to be satisfied with just crawling and never walking. We all need to learn to set bigger goals.
2. Cut out the nay sayers. When we are a baby we are encouraged to never give up on our continuous learning. No one stops us from achieving our next goal, and we never stop pushing to achieve more. Somehow, in the process of getting older, the support stops and we stop pushing towards our dreams. If there is one thing we need to learn from my nephew, it is to never let people stop you from achieving your dreams. All to often, people have settled in life and decide to convince you to settle in yours.
3. Try and try again. We need to learn to keep on trying, no matter how hard it gets. With chronic illness you are faced with many obstacles. We need to jump over those obstacles and get to the finish line. When failure knocks at your doorstop, just think of how my nephew kept on trying until he took his first step. Never give up.

Do you have any funny baby stories? Post them below.
Thanks,

Dave