When my daughter was four-years-old, we were in a garden center picking out plants for spring. She grabbed a packet of sweet corn seeds and said confidently to me, “We’ll plant these, they’ll grow, and then we’ll eat it!”
Here’s a peek at my thoughts in the moment: “Yeah right. We live in Minnesota where the growing season is, like, a minute long. We’ll never actually produce sweet corn. I know this from years of gardening experience.”
This is what I actually said: “Great sweetie, let’s do it.”
Spoiler alert: From the photo above, you can clearly see which one of us was right. (In an unusual turn of events – ha! - it wasn’t me.)
The point here is that we think we know based on our years of experience or our certainty or whatever story we’ve made up to support our knowing.
My clients know that they are not qualified to perform in their new job. Or know that they can’t possibly make a living doing something they love. Or know they will never have a baby. Or know they’ll never get promoted or make more money.
And guess what? They do all those things – make more money, have babies, get promoted, watch their businesses take off, and succeed in big, scary new jobs. They find their faith, take action, and darn it if they don't grow sweet corn in Minnesota!
Instead of relying on our all-to-cynical knowing, how about you let your bright-eyed four-year-old be in charge for a change?
Here’s how in 4 easy steps:
- Find something in your life or work that you know (make sure you are very certain).
- Let your wide-eyed four-year-old grab that thing off the shelf and look at it with faith in what’s possible.
- Fill in the blanks to my daughter’s sentence, “I’ll (do this thing), it will (insert seemingly unlikely result) and then (insert awesome outcome).
- Plant your seeds, watch them grow, and eat them!
It's as easy as being four again.
I hope this helps.
Christina
P.S. As always I love to hear from you - comments, ideas, questions. Bring "em!