What a Child’s Effective Approach to Spreading Ideas Taught Me
The Subtle Power of Uninhibited Curiosity
My life’s philosophy is to assume that each person I come across has the capability to teach me something insightful, whether that insight is novel or whether it is a simple reminder of timeworn truths. This principle of observation also includes little humans, aka children, which leads me to an immensely encouraging reminder I learned from a three-year-old.
As I was watching some children while their parents were away, I observed their interesting speech patterns, their facial expressivity, and their freedom from the various psychological blockades I consistently feel constrained by. I sat in fascination.
While children face their own kinds of adversity, they have a lot of autonomy to imagine, create, and explore. I warmly remember the days of my childhood — in the same position these kids were in, playing with their toys without a care in the world. As I played dolls with this one kid, I listened to her words and differing voices bring into life, several characters having diverse personalities, with different voices and roles in the story.
This explorative play was completely unrestricted, conjured up from her brimming imagination. As an older person, I often struggle with this assumption that I have to be absolutely proficient in articulating ideas to others for those words to mean anything significant. This ideology haunts me each time I have to speak with assertion towards people I am unfamiliar with, and it naturally prevents me from spontaneously communicating the different inquisitions or conclusions that emerge in my head.
However, the more often you share what you had learned from books or other media, the stronger that information lasts in your memory bank. This particular child I was watching left a strong impression in my mind, intriguing me by the different approaches in how she played with these toys. Imagination poured out from her as she expressed each rising possibility in the characters.
While children will be children, I asked myself in that moment,
“How much more different am I than these kids?”
For instance, humans naturally exchange stories. From the most ancient of civilizations to the technologically accelerative, profit, and utility-seeking society we live in today. We perpetually seek to observe and communicate complex layers of emotion and data, integrating and constructing them into stories for others to listen and learn from. We humans rapidly comprehend new things at any given time and we usually may effectively communicate these findings through language.
This tiny three-year-old was doing just that to me, with movement, passion, and articulation of simple words and profound pictures. For some peculiar reason she greatly impressed me, or more accurately, I was moved. While this speculation may not sound as surprising and intriguing to you, I feel as if it convicted me of my perfectionistic attitude in communication.
An alternative approach I am learning to appreciate and implement in my life is to innovate and share stories with the sole purpose of freely entertaining the imaginings and observations that flash across my mind.
While this allows others more of an opportunity to criticize and correct, it gives an individual the reward of expanding perspective and remembering these details because of the emotional feedback from externalities.
