What’s the first thing you do when you lose something? Retrace your steps!

Listen to any young child talk or watch them at play, and you can see the seeds of their natural personality and their early aptitudes. Which of their traits and talents will be nurtured, and which will be discouraged is impossible to predict, but who they fundamentally are, and what innate inclinations they were born with, is often plain to see for any careful observer. Even after a lifetime of growth and change, the neglected seeds remain intact, and ready to be cultivated.

If you’re wondering what natural interests you may have dropped along the way to adulthood, there is no better place to look than in your early years. Ask the people in your life what they remember about you as a child, and you may be surprised by what you hear. Were you persistent? Curious? Headstrong? Argumentative? Compliant? Shy? Were you good with language? A tinkerer? An observer? Any unbiased glimpse you can get of your younger self is a fun way to travel back through time, and look for treasures you can carry back into the present. You may find that some things you tell yourself you can and can’t do (or do and don’t like) may be less true than you believe. Your younger self may have done those things without hesitation as you simply pursued your natural interests and aptitudes.

As a fun thought experiment, close your eyes, and travel back in time to observe your younger self. What do you see when you ask yourself the following questions or ones similar to it?

  • When was the first time you realized you had a natural ability at something, and that it came more easily to you than to those around you?
  • When was the first time you looked at someone and told yourself, “I want to do what they do,” or “I want to be like them”?
  • When was the first time you got lost in a task because it completely engaged you, or when you encountered an obstacle, it drew you in even more deeply, rather than frustrating you?
  • When was the first time you did something, and felt like you were made to do it?

If you are like every human who walks this earth, then you probably gave up a certain willingness to experiment as you got older, to try new things that you may not be good at. You probably gave up a willingness to fail, to build a tower and watch it fall apart before your eyes and the eyes of others. You probably gave up a willingness to be playful, to enjoy something without an agenda or objective. When people say it is good to have the heart of a child, they mean to bring the same open-mindedness and open-heartedness that you were born with. It’s not about being something you aren’t, it’s about being, again, something you were.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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