family pet?
You can recapture a childlike sense of wonder by recalling these memories and remembering what it was like to experience the world for the very first time. When you were a child, the world was open to you. You had very few limitations, and you were eager to learn about how things work. Practice bringing that innocence back into your life, first by re-experiencing your childhood and drawing out the memories of a sense of wonder. Remember what that felt like, and imagine what it would be like to experience the world from that childlike perspective again.
217
There! Mencius said it! You have permission to never grow up.
That may not be entirely true, but it is very important as you travel on the road to success that you keep a child’s heart.
What does that mean? Your assignment today is to write about what you think it means to have a child’s heart. What are some of the traits children possess that would be helpful for you to incorporate into your life today? Why is it so important not to lose your child’s heart?
Notice that this quote does not say it’s nice to have a child’s heart. It says the great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart. You are working through this book because you want to be a great person. You want to live a successful life on a number of levels. Does it seem odd to you that a great person should be childlike?
You do not have to come along willingly here. If you don’t see why you would want to recapture a child’s heart, then write about that. Get your feelings out on paper. Why would you rather maintain your adult status and not go back to childish ways? Is this thought process a little unsettling for you?
On the other hand, you may be excited to have the chance to reach back to your childhood. Maybe you miss that childlike sense of wonder that you had when you were innocent and had not yet become jaded by the ways of the world. There is an idealistic side to having a child’s heart. Is that something you can embrace?
218
On Day 210 you were asked to start brainstorming ways in which you could combine fantasy and reason to achieve success. How is that going? Are you coming up with some great ideas? What are you doing to incorporate those ideas into your life? Here’s the bad news: the assignment you started on day 210 is going to last a bit longer than a week. It should continue throughout your lifetime. Never stop finding ways to unite these powerful devices. They will guide you on the road to success— and maybe that’s good news!
Now for today’s lesson. Bob Seger incorporated the quote above into his song “Against the Wind,” and it exemplifies the transition from innocence to experience. The longer you hang around in this world, the more life experiences you accumulate. At some point you will most likely wish you didn’t know now what you didn’t know when you were a child full of optimism and wonder.
How do you combat the sadness, regret, and cynical feelings that come with adult knowledge of the world? What can you do to maintain a bit of your childhood sense of wonder at the beauty that surrounds you? It’s hard not to become jaded, especially if life has dealt you some serious blows. The trick is to continually look for the good. There is something redeemable in every situation you face. You can choose to concentrate on the negative, or you can instead decide to pay attention to the positive aspects of life. You don’t have to pretend you don’t know now what you didn’t know then. Instead, you might try to use your knowledge to grow and extend your sense of wonder into a larger arena.
219
