In one of the shows which I watched previously, a father was having a conversation with his son. The father said, “If you keep looking at your feet, your scope of view will forever be around your feet only. But if you raise your head to look at the horizon, your scope of view will be magnified many times and you will have new perspective or view.”

Isn’t that very true? Judging people and scenario upon first impression is like looking around one’s feet; what one see will be limited. Not to mention that one already knew the size of one’s feet. One will quickly jump to the conclusion that one knows everything that one needs to know already.

However, when one reminds oneself that he/she could be wrong, one immediately move into the horizon view. Now there is more information that one needs to process and one’s eventual conclusion will be of more depth and completed.

A few years back I was first enlightened about this from the book ’7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen R. Covey (I hope my memory didn’t fail me). In one part of the book, a scenario described of a man in a train on a certain day and sitting near to him was a father and his son. The boy was making a terrible racket in the train but his father just sat beside his son quietly without stopping him.

The man finally lost it and asked the father to discipline the boy and to prevent him from creating so much noise in the train. The father said, “I very sorry that my boy is creating such a terrible racket in the train. The boy’s mother just passed away and he didn’t know how to handle it.”

What do you think was the reaction of the man? Just like how you have reacted probably. So we can see that an understanding was reached in this scenario and somehow the terrible racket that the boy was creating seems somewhat more bearable.

I have been using this story to remind myself to be more understanding and to always do my best to look at things from a telescopic view.

Have you ever been in such a situation whereby you misunderstood someone or jump immediately to the conclusion, only to realize it later that you were actually wrong? Please feel free to share with me and enlighten me from my ignorance.

The inability to remember how one learned to walk could be a very important reason why some gave up so readily when they faced with challenges in life. Had they remembered the time when they were learning to walk, they would not be so ready to give up without a fight.

If you would allow me, please moves back in time with me to about one year ago when my twin nephews were learning to walk. Even before they learned to walk, they had to learn to fall on their bums while trying to stand up on their own legs. Most time when they tried to stand up, they fell. Sometimes they cried when falling down hurt. The other times they learned to giggle and to laugh at themselves. It might take them a while to want to stand up again after they fell, however, they never waited too long to give it another shot.

There were times when we were around to catch them when they fell, to cheer them on and there were also times when they picked themselves up silently, without us watching. The numerous falls did not stop them from wanting to rise on their legs. Did they hurt when they fell? I do not know. But their determination to rise up every time they fell was what we could see.

The question is, if everyone has been through this stage, shouldn’t we have this same determination to rise up every time we fall too? I believe everyone has this determination – when we remember how we had stood up every time we fell.

Of course the story did not end there. After learning to stand up on their legs, it was time to take the first step, which was also one of the most important steps in their lives. Did the first step end well? On the contrary, just like everyone else, they fell down again on their first step. Did they try again? What do you think? Just a hint, if they had stopped trying then, I wouldn’t have the chances to chase the two of them around the house now and a day will come when I have to catch my breath while chasing them.

One may say, “they had all the encouragement and cheering when they were taking those steps.” I do not deny the fact that we were giving them a lot of encouragement and cheering along the way. However, they had to be the one who wanted to keep on trying even after endless falls. What did they know about falling? Nothing? Maybe they knew much more about falling than you and I because – they knew nothing about falling to begin with? They did not think too much of people laughing at them or teasing them or no one supporting them; in other words, they did not find reasons to justify their fall. They just knew they can walk when they kept on trying. All the other reasons were not important anymore.

The next time round when you are facing some challenges, do try to remember how you had learned to walk.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising up every time we fail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson