Please indulge me as I share an example that I gave a friend, regarding never giving up. As most of you know, I have a son who is approaching 11 months of age. Though I’ve been around children through friends and my nephews, I would consider myself a rookie when it comes to caring for children. Changing diapers, safe-proofing the home, buying the right car seats, and overall, doing what you can to give them the best opportunity to be healthy and happy are some of the challenges I’ve faced since his birth last year on March 28th.

I guess you could say I’ve learned a lot from watching him progress. He seemed to be ahead in many growth categories, but when all of his friends were crawling, he showed no interest. Though he was one of the first among his friends to sit up on his own, crawling seemed to be such a challenge. Daily, he’d make effort, but often he’d go backwards, which would lead to a very upset baby. It was amusing, but I definitely could see his frustration.

There are so many lessons we adults can learn from watching the progressions of a child. Despite his lack of ability to crawl, he seemed to make an effort every day. How many of us have that kind of determination on areas we fail? It’s easy for us to walk away from struggles, but life often requires us to get back in there to reach our objectives. How many times have you given up on something you knew you could do? Have you tried to diet, but gave up before you saw real progress? What about exercising? Are there areas of your career you’ve wanted to improve, but you didn’t stick to it? I’m sure you’re not alone, as we’ve all been there at some point. Babies and small children seem to be driven by an undying will to achieve. Often, they may not understand the ramifications or understand that they can’t do something, but that might just be the key. What if we didn’t see an alternative to reaching our objectives? If you read my blog post, Wants Don’t Get Met, where I talk about creating a new standard to live by. Babies live by standards and progressing seems to be dictated in their DNA. As adults, we live with fear in many ways, which keeps us from going after what we want. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of making a fool of ourselves and fear of disappointing others are just a few of the things that keep us from taking action.

During two weeks of travel, my diet and exercise routine were severely challenged. After losing 15 lbs in three weeks, I found myself challenged by heavy foods and very little sleep, often part of travel. Fortunately, my weight didn’t really go back up, but I lost my momentum and struggled to get back to my routine. Fortunately, I was able to return to my success strategies, remembering the new standards I set. If my son wasn’t giving up, neither was I. His determination paid off, as I’m happy to report that my wife called two weeks ago to tell me that he finally crawled on his own. He didn’t give up and reached a new milestone, though a little late. The following Monday, however, she called to tell me that he took his first steps on his own at 10 months of age. Reaching milestones creates confidence and when you’re confident, you never know what you can accomplish, no matter what your age is. My son made a big developmental leap because he didn’t give up. Set your targets, create a new standard to live by and never stop driving forward. It’s what my son does and it’s what I’m doing to.

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