I used to have a card, I think it was a birthday card someone gave me, that said, “Everything I need to know I learned from my dog.” Maybe you know the one. “Smell everything that interests you.” “Eat and sleep and play all the time.” “Look for cuddles.” I don’t remember if it said, “Lick your own butt” too. Anyway, it was cute. Here’s my version: Everything I Need to Know I Learned from my Toddler.<\/p>\n
Lesson one: If you say “I WANT” something enough, maybe you’ll get it. So keep trying.
\nLesson two: If “I WANT” doesn’t work, try rephrasing the question. Try, “I would like,” or even, “Would you like?” as variations on “I WANT.” The phrasing is not as important as the repetition.
\nLesson three: Get up early and go to bed late. That way you will have more hours in the day to try and get the thing you want.
\nLesson four: If you love something, think about it all the time. Talk about it all the time. Make it so much a part of your world that you are inseparable from it and it from you. You are one.
\nLesson five: Fear nothing until it has actually hurt you.<\/p>\n
I have been watching Trombone lately and reframing his irritating behavior, see above, so that it is positive. That way I want to run away less. (Of course, it is positive and perfectly normal, it is helping him learn, it’s just that right now, sometimes, I am finding it irritating.) Anyway, I have decided that if I were to follow his example, in a less strident way, I might also get the ice cream sandwich. As it were.<\/p>\n
You see, he most often applies his tenacious toddler technique (except for lesson five) to treats – ice cream sandwiches of late – but I could apply them to things less tangible. Fulfilling career. A little chunk of the day to write in. That’s all I can think of right now. As follows, for example:<\/p>\n
Lesson one: I WANT 15 minutes a day to write. I WANT 15 minutes a day to WRITE. I want FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY to write.
\nLesson two: I would like 15 minutes a day to write. Would YOU like 15 minutes a day to write? Would you like to do this? I would. Me. I WANT IT.
\nLesson three is taken care of. In spades.
\nLesson four: working on it, with my spare 17 brain cells.
\nLesson five: constant work in progress.<\/p>\n
As my laptop has bitten the big, green wiener (thank you, SA’s family, for this eloquent expression) and won’t boot right now, I am going to practise this focus. If a two-year-old can do it, I can, right? Without my constant computer companion to dull (and sometimes stimulate) my brain, I will attempt to carve out that 15 minutes. A day. To write. That I would like. To write in. Just 15 minutes. Me. Me want! Please give me my 15 minutes! Please, would you?<\/p>\n
See? Annoying isn’t it. But it will help me grow. Or go off the deep end once and for all. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I used to have a card, I think it was a birthday card someone gave me, that said, “Everything I need to know I learned from my dog.” Maybe you know the one. “Smell everything that interests you.” “Eat and … Continue reading