You can't do that

What do you mean you want to do ... THAT

•    Who do you think you are?
•    No-one has ever done that before
•    No-one from our family has ever done that so why do you think you can?
•    Be careful
•    Be good
•    Take care

It's ingrained in our language - don't do that you might hurt yourself.

My question to you is a simple one - What would we be able to achieve if we were constantly being told the opposite?

•    You CAN do that
•    Go for it
•    Make your mark
•    Off you go and have fun, lots of fun

Sure there might be a few skinned knees and bruised butts where we've landed once or twice - but do babies care about falling over when they are learning to walk - NOPE, so why should we? Will we be embarrassed if we fail the first couple of times? Why? I remember learning how to juggle - I think I spent an entire day bending over and picking up the little balls off the floor. Did I stop? Nope. Did I laugh? Hardly stopped. Did I get annoyed? Sometimes - especially when others picked it up faster than I did. Did I succeed - you betcha. I'm a bit rusty these days, but give me half an hour and some bending over and picking the darn things off the floor a few times and I'll be fine.

Sometimes I think the reason we don't try new things is because we are afraid of showing ourselves up. So what if we don't get it right the first time, we can always have another go.

This week I would like to ask you to do something as silly as learning how to juggle. It doesn't have to be juggling of course, it could be re-learning how to pogostick, hula hoop or learning the mambo or the dance steps on one of the kids videos (think the wiggles). But it's got to be small and something that you can master or re-master in a day or two.

• Why should you do something as silly as waste time on a frivolous pursuit?
• Why not, I'm sure you can turn off the television for half an hour while you play.
• It reminds us that it's OK to fail, that it's OK to be a learner, that it's OK to practice, practice and practice until we master it.
• That if we can do THAT - then what else can we do?

Off you go and have fun, lots of fun