Remember the time when you were a child, without any worries and free of stress? Back to when you were small with big big dreams. A time where anything seemed possible, and you were still happy with the littlest things because you were so present. Do you remember what your big dreams were? What did you want to become when you grew up, what did you want your job to look like? Can you see that picture in front of you again?
Now fast forward to this moment and look at where you’re at; what happened along the way? Maybe your parents finally knocked some sense in your little brain and told you that some things just weren’t possible or too hard. That some dreams are soon forgotten. Or good ol’ society changed your mindset and view of the world and left you a dull, boring entity without any passion. Like so many people in our world, this could be the case, or you learned to think for yourself, to make your own decisions, live your biggest dream. and do what you love.
Either way, there are 3 good reasons to never grow up! Here they are:
1) Children are not afraid of dreaming big, anything is possible!
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right”, Henry Ford once said. Without this childish mindset, the man couldn’t have created a company that is now internationally known as Ford Motor Company. He could have just settled with a garage or workshop in the neighborhood that is good enough. Steve Jobs could have thought: “Hmmm, let me just open a little computer store in town selling computers and webcams”, instead of building Apple, one of the most famous technology companies in the world.
The term good enough is what we encounter in a lot of our surroundings today. Having a good enough job, with a good enough partner living in a good enough neighborhood. People are just settling way too damn fast with what they have, which is good enough but never what they really want. What our world needs is visionaries, big dreamers and risk-takers. Your vision is everything, because you can’t create or achieve what you don’t see yourself create or achieve. Dreaming big is a great quality and something we can learn from children.
2) A second argument is that not only work, but play, should be a big part of your daily life!
We all see kids doing this: being completely occupied with the building of blocks or playing hide and seek for hours at a time. They are playing and there doesn’t really seem to be a goal to achieve. The definition of play is: “to engage in an activity for pure enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose”. The latter, serious purposes, is something that drives a lot of adults today to focus on money or status, thereby neglecting their playful self. With depression, burn-outs and a lack of happiness being very common in our lives, we can ask ourselves what the cause could be. A part of this is the lack of expression of our energy and emotions. Dissect the word depression and you get de-pression, the opposite of ex-pression. We are holding back and in our energy. A bit more play in our lives, with the related joy and expression, can give us a way to channel that energy. Play definitely couldn’t hurt anyone and is something else we can learn from children!
3) We don’t have to take ourselves so seriously
Looking at children, they do the silly things they do; they make goofy faces at the most random times. You just see the joy and playfulness in their presence. Something we can learn from children is not taking ourselves so seriously. They are themselves and they are authentic. Everyone has a certain image and ego they we believe their self to be, and we want to project that toward our environment. If we are too stuck up with this image, too serious about this, then we might get in trouble. We become rigid in our personality and body. The moments that are the most legendary and unforgettable are the ones where we can let go completely and just do whatever the hell we want to do. So to wrap up, as you read, there are very good reasons not to grow up completely. Implement these 3 points and see the benefits it has in life, business, love, and a whole lot more!