#2 Writemas

Rekindling Your Child Like Wonder

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend said to me, “A lot of adulthood is unlearning the things you learned as a teenager, like trying to fit in so you don’t feel left out.”

I added to her point that I suspected adult fulfilment is rediscovering your childlike wonder again.

Let me explain.

Last year, I re-read one of my favourite books growing up: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

The whole re-read with adult eyes was such a soothing experience.

It reminded me we were all once children. I know that sounds so bloody obvious, but along the way of going to school, graduating, getting our first job, renting our first apartment, meeting our partners, saving for a mortgage, trying to get a promotion, looking for a new job, getting engaged and so on, we forget about the playfulness and innocence of being a child.

I remember at 16 years-old, I was always in such a rush to grow up. I couldn’t wait to move out, start a job and do adulting things.

Yet, I spent most of my twenties thinking about the future. As a result, I experienced neither the present nor the future.

It’s why I’ve always loved the Christmas season so much. It reminds me to be childlike again. Let’s not get it confused with being childish. Childish means silly or immature. Childlike means trusting or innocent.

Walking away from my poker life and starting over again meant being a beginner. A beginner writer. A beginner at business. A beginner climber. But through the terror of not knowing what the hell I was doing, it helped me fully rediscover the childlike wonder I had lost so long ago.

It meant letting go of all my beliefs, living in the moment and seeing what reality for what actually is, not what I wanted it to be.

It unshackled me from any preconceived ideas and limitations of what I thought was previously possible.

But it also importantly taught me so much about love and life again.

“Don’t dwell in the past and live in the present”, “Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have”, and “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart,” all don’t truly register until you realise how much of your childlike wonder has been lost growing up.

Speak to you tomorrow,

Jason.