Crawling Towards Success Baby!

You have to crawl before you can walk!  How many times have you heard that phrase when learning something new?

The problem is that many times we’re too impatient to spend the time crawling in order to walk.  We tend to overcomplicate things by focusing on how much we want what we’re trying to crawl towards and on what short cuts can be found to get there.

If we could put the same effort into crawling, we’d get where we’re headed faster and with less frustration. 

Crawling Backwards

Take for example, our little girl.  She’s been working on crawling for a while and finally figured it out. Now we’re in trouble!

She’d see something she wanted, put her head down, and start crawling.  The only problem was that she couldn’t coordinate her arms and legs so she’d end up pushing herself backwards!  Sound familiar? You’re trying as hard as you can but feel like you’re moving away from what you want, instead of towards it.

I know she would get frustrated, especially when she ended literally up backing herself into a corner, scooting backwards until she was wedged under a chair or in a corner.  But Mother Nature prevailed, our little girl kept at it until she finally figured it out.

My Crawling Hero

Of course I can’t really attribute this to our daughter’s dogged determination (although as a doting dad I’d like to) that’s just what babies do.  It’s not only tots with steely resolve that figure out crawling; sooner or later most babies learn to crawl and then walk.

But that doesn’t mean that learning to crawl or walk are inconsequential events.  Those babies should be our accomplishment heroes!  They should be the motivation for anyone that wants to accomplish anything.  They don’t know how to crawl, they don’t even know what crawling is, they just go for it.

Don’t Worry, Just Crawl

Little babies don’t overcomplicate crawling, they see something they want on the other side of the room and go after it.  Imagine for a second if a baby endured as much anguish and delay as we do over the things we want in life.  Imagine, if instead of crawling, babies spent their time worrying about questions like these:

• Why should I crawl?
• Is it too soon to crawl?
• How fast should I crawl?
• What style of crawling should I use?
• Do I need a crawling plan?
• Should I hire a crawling coach?
• Do I really have time to crawl?
• What will people think if I crawl?
• Why are they already crawling and I’m not?
• What if it hurts to crawl?
• What if I can’t crawl all the way across the room?
• Is it a waste of time to crawl?
• Can I get someone else to crawl for me?
• Am I really the crawling type?
• What if I don’t like crawling once I start?
• Do I have to crawl every day?
• What if they crawl faster than me?
• I wonder if I’m good enough to crawl?
• Maybe I should watch someone else crawl first..
• What happens if I run into an obstacle while crawling?
• Will my crawling take away from my time doing other stuff?
• Is crawling overrated?
• Will anyone even care if I crawl?
• Who will crawl with me?
• Isn’t there another way than crawling?
• Has anyone ever crawled before?
• What happened to the last person that crawled?
• What’s plan B if crawling doesn’t work out?
• What’s the worst that could happen if I don’t crawl?
• Maybe I should wait until tomorrow to try and crawl…
• Where am I crawling to anyways?
• Crawling sure sounds like a lot of work…
• What are the dangers of crawling?
• How will I know when I’m REALLY crawling?

I could go on all day but you get the picture.  If you’re human, you probably know what I’m talking about.  You can share your “favorite” crawling excuses below in the comments below if you’d like. 

What Will They Think?

I remember one day I came home from work and opened the door to see my wife’s friend’s baby “crawling” in the most unusual way that I’d ever seen.  I can’t really describe it; she was sitting up, using both her heels and the palms of her hands to scoot around.  I felt like I was watching a creature out of Star Wars scamper around our living room. 

I could tell her mom was a little embarrassed by this unique form of crawling. I’ll admit, it was a little strange, but guess what.  The baby didn’t care, she had figured out her own way and was getting exactly where she wanted to go.  Not only that, the little girl could book it too!

So who’s to say how you should crawl?  What crawling excuses are you fretting over?  What if you just started crawling and figured it out along the way? 

Crawl baby crawl!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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