The beginning to everything.

Every experience starts from somewhere. Even a baby goes through milestones before reaching toddler’s stage. Without that first bold move, there will be no moments to share, and no story to tell.

According to Tom Stafford, humans are curious in nature. We are capable of absorbing so much more from our environment with extended childhood. We can learn and adapt to new ways of doing things even in adulthood, if we want to. Having said that, confidence is key for one to take on new challenges.

“The enemies of confidence are discouragement and fear.”- Carl Pickhardt

Many studies indicated that children are more open-minded learners compared to adults. This is not surprising considering adults have accumulated cause-and-effect learnings that are capable of narrowing minds throughout the years. These experiences can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; positive experiences are reinforced whilst negative encounters are shied away unless they are properly considered. Not to mention at this age when negatives news travel faster than good ones, others’ experiences silently roped into our thoughts and considerations, deterring our confidence, influencing our decisions, and hindering us from taking on new challenges.

How many attempts do we try again after every failure encounter?

How much do we believe that experiences are unique by individual?

How much time is spent on procrastination, dreaming over “what-if” possibilities and falling into self-pep talk of taking no actions?

Life is what we made of.

From parents guidance to teachings at school, college, and university years, they prepared us in overcoming bigger challenges in later years. It would be wrong to confine learnings only from books, as there are more to pick up in life that are beneficial to personal development such as self-awareness and social relationships. It’s all up to us. There is no graduation point to learning. Instead, learning requires an open mind, patience, curiosity, and courage in experimenting the knowns for quest of the unknowns. It is a lifelong journey of discoveries. What would life be if we stop developing ourselves?

Whilst thinking can mean consideration, it is as good as theory written in books. Doing is another – only by doing is when we can experience learning to the fullest. It makes us learn from what’s right, mend what we’ve done wrong, and encourages forward-thinking. Doing something right fuels our confidence. Likewise, it also tests courage in overcoming our fear for mistakes and humiliation. Sadly, we do more thinking and talking than executing. Some ideas remained as myths because they’ve never started. Some ideas remained half-cooked because they’ve never been given a fair chance to succeed.

Which is more satisfying? – An experience that we earn for ourselves, or a talk of experience that is owned by others?

There is a beginning to everything. Be the curious child you used to be.

Own your moment and share your story. A step forward is better than none. Live with no regrets.