WHO AM I? 21 WAYS TO UNVEIL THE HIDDEN YOU (Excerpt)

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14 

GET THE CHILD WALKING

   

Get the child in you walking. Allow him to take steps and fall. Watch him do it again, again, and again—and the next time, you’ll see a man running. That toddler has to grow.

We’ve come a long way talking about Who Am I: 21 Ways To Unveil The Hidden You. Now, it’s time to get your hands greasy and put your ideas in motion. Look out through the window of your mind and see that the world is gathering to celebrate your ideas—and those people are running out of patience already. You can’t afford to lose your fans. You’ve got to get the child walking and fill their needs.

There is a child in everyone—afraid of new heights, gallant steps, and being called names—who prefers the comfort zone. His other name is inertia.

But life is an adventure, and the best way to enjoy it is to join the voyage and dare to explore the impossibilities. You must drag your ship from the harbor and sail out. Test it on the waters. Don’t mind the visibility reports and weather forecasts; just sail out. Leave the economy analysts. They’re just sign posts; you may read their messages, but still go on.

When nothing is dared, nothing dear is expected.

In order to carve a niche for yourself, you must try those things which you are most afraid of—especially the fear of failure. I’ve faced my fears several times and found out that the things I feared almost never really existed.

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I came to understand that, almost ninety-nine percent of the time, fear is only a personified illusion, a mirage that holds up a red flag that reads: “Stop there!” But funny as ever, the closer you get, the farther the red flags go. So be defiant; keep going.

Get the child walking, and watch him wander. He’ll step out and may fall—leap, jump, fall, run, and stumble—but he’s gaining altitude. Allow the wandering. Give him the chance to derail; that way, he may lead us to discover another America—a new world! Teach him the norms and allow him to break some, for that’s the way to be awesome, wonderful, and great. Men of the status-quo are but walking statues. They only go where the world moves them.

I had these next door neighbors, a new couple with a son. They were what many would consider a rich family.  Money wasn’t really their problem. Well, we got along fine. But there was something about them: they were too fond of their three-year-old son, Jack. Jack was three, but a good observer would notice that he was still fed through the placenta. He was constantly under close observation. He was never allowed to touch anything “unclean”—even as “unclean” as the sand—and never allowed to play with the sand outside the house, something that seems intuitive in most kids his age. But one day, Jack found his way out of his cage, broke loose, and headed for the sand. Soon, he’d painted himself and swallowed a good chunk of red earth. On that day, the angels looked for a safer heaven, as Jack’s mother descended on the Nanny and the other home aids for allowing Jack to escape undue pampering and defile himself with the “unclean” things. Furious, she ran out, surging like the waves of the North Atlantic. With tears in her eyes, she grabbed Jack, rinsing his mouth out with every bottle of water she could lay her hands on.

 Seeing the rage, I took cover and watched from a safe distance. Really, I pitied the innocent child, who cried all through the rigorous dental flossing. “What have I done?” he might have thought. A few minutes later, when the area seemed calm, I emerged.

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“Justice, can you imagine? They allowed this little kid to go out there?!” she said, waiting for my vote. Wow, the three year old kid had escaped from his pen, I thought.

“But Ma, I think you should allow him to play out there. That’s where kids grow up” I answered, watching my tone. Of course, nobody wanted to see another hurricane.

“What?!” she roared and ran upstairs. She was probably disappointed at my response.

Jack just sat there, moping and moody, recovering from the shock of the flossing and his overprotective Mum. He had always been caged and stopped from going outside—to life’s playground. He was held back by rules and norms, pampered by a false comfort zone.

But how important is life’s playground? Is it not where Jack’s journey of real life experience begins, where, when he gets dirty, he may learn to bathe himself on his own? Isn’t the playground where he may get injured and bleed and learn what pain means and how to avoid it the next time? It was out there that Jack tasted red earth and now knows what it tastes like and can now tell the difference between sands and food. Out there, he could feel the cold and the scotching sun. Even if Jack took ill out there, fine; at least now he can tell what not to do to fall sick the next time.

Life’s best lessons aren’t learned in our comfort zones, but in the depths and heights, under the harshest of the sun and cold. In fact, we’re at our best in all of life’s playgrounds.

Where is the Jack in you—in cage or on the life’s playground? When will you allow the child in you to take a walk?  Or don’t you want to go out there because you don’t want to invite Mummy’s hurricane and break the status quo? How many nannies have fear positioned to wedge you from playing out there? Perhaps you don’t like touching the dust and the red earth? You don’t want to get painted with the red earth as Jack did. But if Jack never goes out to try new things, when will he learn? How will he survive the storms and floods when Mummy and the nannies are long gone? When the comforting walls fall apart, where will Jack’s refuge be? When his muscles have grown stiff and lost elasticity? Is now not the best time to learn? Isn’t it better to allow Jack to make all the mistakes now, when he has all the time and energy to correct them?  

To Unveil The Hidden You, you must release your Jack to the school of life; he’ll do better learning out there. Holding him back will never bring out the best in him. Give him the red earth to paint himself and his world, and call up the artist within. Give him the space to breathe and exhale.

Boys don’t grow up at home; it’s out in the world.

Not letting the child walk out and play is spoiling Jack’s day; you only end up making the genius in Jack sit, moping and moody. Every Jack has something to offer our world that only he can give. Keeping Jack inside your comfort zone is like paralyzing the man with good intentions and dreams. Anyone can have good intentions and great dreams. But when the Jack in you isn’t playing, you live life moping and moody; you remain a statue.

A good intention is great, but action is better. Every good intention is in the head, but what we do with those intentions is what others see.

The best of our men are those who did things. What matters in life aren’t the prophecies we prophesized, but those we fulfilled; not the dreams we dreamed, but those we realized; not the visions we see, but the missions accomplished.  As you read, act. Don’t hold back. Don’t get electrified and keep all the energy within. Let it flow, and light the world. Don’t march to the grave with all the energy locked up in you; its use is here while the sun shines.

There are two basic groups of people on this planet: those who do things, and those who watch things being done. We choose where to belong. To unveil the hidden you, you must belong to those who get things done—those who bring positive change to our inheritance. Caging Jack is veiling and wedging the genius in him, invariably depriving the world what he’s capable of. The best protection for Jack is to arm him with all the information he’ll need out there, then let him go with courage and optimism.

There’s a Jack in everyone, craving to go out there and play. Release him. Holding him back is stopping the real you from manifesting. Exercise those limbs, lest you cripple him.

#14

No matter how feeble your limbs may look, they only get better with exercise.

It isn’t Polio that stops men from taking steps, but fear. Ignore the voice that says you will fall.

Release your Jack.

 

The Gauge:

1. What’s the Jack in you?

2. When will the child be born?

3. Will you allow your Jack to take a walk?

 


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