Toddling is Harder than Sprinting

Have you ever felt like you should be moving faster?

Like you’re just about to take off… just about to start sprinting toward your goal?

… but then you find yourself moving slower than you want, and stumbling as you come across every new step.

You may want to be a sprinter. But the truth is...

....you may actually be a toddler.

Before you get more frustrated (because what adult wants to be compared to a toddler)

let me say:

toddling is harder than sprinting.

Yes, sprinting is challenging and requires technical proficiency and hard-earned skill.

But to me, sprinting also implies some sense of flow and capitalizes on momentum.

You cannot get flow and momentum if you are only learning to do the thing.

And in my experience,

it is harder to learn to do the thing than it is to do the thing. Sprinting takes strength and persistence.

But toddling takes: strength (from muscles you've barely used before),

plus persistence,

plus focus,

plus a high tolerance for failure,

plus patience,

plus repetition,

PLUS….

...you have to re-create your own momentum over, and over, and over again.

Toddling is learning. Toddling is doing. Toddling is leveling up, because

Toddling means you are covering new and important territory.

If you want to sprint, you need to toddle.

And toddlers, just like us, wish they were moving faster.

Because they’re motivated.

Just like you.

So I hope next time you’re with a toddler you watch them closely:

They’re unstable, clumsy, and determined

SO...

they get back up each time they fall-

without an ounce of self-judgment.

Seth Godin was recently on a podcast I love and said:

“Toddling is the point.”

and that we should be toddling our whole lives.

...

If we don’t feel clumsy, slow-moving, or about to fall, we’re probably not stepping out of our

comfort zone, which is of course where the magic happens.

So if you find yourself saying:

“Come on! I want to move faster!” or “I’m trying so hard but I can’t get traction”

Congratulations!

You’re doing something challenging and maybe even essential for the next phase of your life.

Happy toddling, friends!

Shoutout to Seth Godin, ‘The Long and The Short of It’ podcast, and my nephews for inspiring this blog post.