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A Lesson in Motivation From an 8 Year Old

Have you ever spent money on a course to motivate you? It’s funny how as we grow, and become disillusioned with the world, and ourselves, we go searching for things to make our lives seem just a little bit more significant. Or we’ll go searching for some new pearl of wisdom to shine some light on what may seem to be a dim situation.

And at the end of the day, we end up finding answers right under our noses. Then upon reflection we realise that this little pearl has been there all along but in our struggle to find answers we never stopped to take notice.

My little pearl today came in the form of an 8 year old girl. My daughter.

You see she’s been a little bit ill lately, in fact she’s been in quite a bit of pain. For the last week I’ve spent many hours just helping her get through each night. It seems that her pain is at its worst during the night. Neither of us have had much sleep at all.

But she’s a fairly conscientious little thing. She loves learning, and so she loves school. She hasn’t been able to go all week because of her illness. And while she’s been at home, during the day time at least, whenever she has the energy and she’s not in pain, she sits down to work on a school project that isn’t due for another week and a half.

So I said to her today, “honey, why don’t you take a break and just relax, get some rest, and try to catch up on the sleep that you’ve been missing out on? You can do your project later and I’m sure your teacher will understand if you hand it in late.”

Her answer almost bowled me over. I didn’t know if I should laugh, cry, praise her, or what to do but let me tell you I felt as proud as a parent could feel.

What she said was “Dad, it’s gotta get done so I might as well do it, I mean it’s not going to get done on its own now is it“.

Now I’d love to take credit for that. I mean lets face it, it’s very possible that she learned that from me, from the things I talk about with her. Maybe she’s just watched the way I do things and picked it up there. Maybe, maybe, maybe. These were some of the thoughts that immediately went through my head ie: I must be doing something right. Right?

Wrong!!!

Well OK it’s probably fair to say that the influence she gets from me probably helps but the bottom line is you can’t teach that kind of attitude. That comes from within you. Either you get it or you don’t.

Clearly she gets it, and she made a point of letting me know that today.

What makes this so important and worth writing about is the lesson in the message, and the message is for everyone.

The message is simple.

Do what you have to do to get the job done. Don’t make excuses, don’t put it off till later, take advantage of the time you have today because tomorrow you might find that your time has run out. No matter how bad you think things are, just get on with it. You’ll have time to rest once the job is done.

I’m a happy man today because I know that this is one kid that I don’t have to worry about her future. She has all the markings of a future achiever and a future leader, and I can’t wait to see what she has in store.

Thanks Ally, you made my day sweet heart.

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Tags: Mindset, Motivation, pearl of wisdom, Personal Development