I have spent years learning about my inner self. It has not been easy. Growing up I had a hard time getting over my fears, restraints and inertia. But the effort was worth it and now I live my life to the fullest. How do you teach your child to do the same? The search for self-improvement is full of self-doubt. I have spent years exploring many avenues and techniques; not all lead anywhere meaningful. However, some things I learned have helped me enormously. But I’m not confident that I have found the right answers. Other people I know have found great benefits from techniques and practices that were of no help to me. Likewise, what I find beneficial, others may not.
Meeting and falling in love with my wife was the best thing that has ever happened to me. The birth of our son brought us great joy. But as we settled into parenting, I became more and more worried about my ability to teach my son about the right approach to living life. I didn’t want him to spend years, in later life, searching, as I had done, for answers as to how best to live life. I didn’t want his life constrained like so many people’s lives are today. I had so many questions about the correct life coaching plan I should use. How old should he be before I began teaching him techniques that I had learned? What approach should I take? And were the techniques and practices I had learned suitable for him? Did I have the ability to teach others?
It was my wife who provided the answer. Actually, we had a row. I was fretting, as usual, about our son, when my wife screamed at me to give it a rest! When I retorted that I only wanted to help our child, she replied that it was me who wanted help and that our son needed no help at all. In fact, she said, if I continued like this, one thing was certain: our son would certainly spend many years as an adult, trying to sort out his life. She was right of course. From that point on, I began to really observe my child and I began to realize that he had no issues to sort out, no inhibitions, inertia, or self-doubt. He’s a dynamo, who is constantly exploring the world around him. He’s always himself; he’s in touch with his real, inner self.
I can only teach him to do certain things. I can teach him what he needs to know about crossing the road, riding a bike…but nothing about living life. He’s my teacher and he’s doing a good job of teaching me that.
