If you were to ask me who I learn the most from on a daily basis, my answer would include children. Children have a funny way of teaching us things without even noticing they’re doing it, it’s just in their natural being.

The way they approach life with an open mind, are extremely curious, and look at things so simplistically is beyond impressive. Sometimes, I think that they are wiser than most adults I come across, because they haven’t formed many biases yet. Most of the time, people are mirrors of your own behavior, or behaviors that you can improve upon. Children are included in this, and it’s amazing how much we can learn from these little humans. 

For me personally, my little human teacher is my six year old nephew, Christian (also known as CJ or Chris, or to me “buddy.”) Anyone that knows me personally knows how much I value his presence in my life and how close of a bond we have, even on the days when we bicker. Despite those bickering moments though, I love him not only because of who he is, but what he teaches me on a regular basis. 

I tend to ask him a lot of questions which I’m sure he gets annoyed with. A few examples of these are, “What’s your favorite color?” “What show do you want to watch today?” “What’s your favorite game?” and any other questions that relate to his interests. Typically when he gives me an answer, it’s a different answer. I always get so surprised at his answers, because they’re so different from the answer he gave me a few weeks prior. Whenever he has a favorite show or toy, he usually sticks with it for a while, so I’m always thrown off when it changes. 

Recently when I was working from home and he was home from school, I asked him if he wanted to watch the movie, Encanto, with me. It’s one of our family favorites, but this time around he wasn’t interested. Right away I asked him “Christian, we used to watch that almost everyday. How you don’t want to watch it now?” He responded, “Tia, sometimes I want to watch it, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I want to watch my favorite show, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I want to play with my Toy Story toys, and sometimes I don’t.” This was a pretty long winded response, but he got the message across. Especially to someone like me. 

In our human nature, we thrive on consistency, familiarity and routine, and for obvious reasons. There is value and progress in discipline, and that is one of the best ways to get results – to be consistent and keep a routine. I personally love my routines and I’m glad that they’ve taught me to become disciplined and prioritize what matters most to me. While routines are extremely beneficial, it’s very easy to get stuck in them and not allow for any wiggle room. 

Before I started diving into writing, I often guilted myself for not writing first thing in the morning. To the point where if I didn’t write in the morning I would think, “I might as well just not do it at all.” Instead, I decided to write a little in the afternoon, and later in the night because I couldn’t sleep. Another example would be working out. We sometimes get the itch to move our bodies, but in this particular instance, I didn’t feel like lifting weights or running. Instead, I decided to do some yoga and go to my jiu jitsu class (on a day that wasn’t part of my usual weekly routine). 

What my nephew had said to me that day could have easily just gone through one ear and out the other, but as someone who can sometimes leave very little wiggle room in her routine, I’m glad I listened. 

Just because you have the urge to do something, it doesn’t always have to be done in an extremely specific way. You don’t need to have the exact same thing for breakfast every morning, complete the same workout set at the same time every day, or read ten pages of a specific book at 10pm every single night. That’s not saying you have to stop doing these things, but what about the days where you don’t? There’s no need to shame yourself for not doing them. You may be in the mood for a different type of breakfast, you may feel like going for a hike or an intense run instead of a gym workout, or you may feel like meditating before bed instead of reading a book. All of that is okay. You still achieve the core interests – to eat, to move, and to wind down. They just looked differently than they did before. 

With all of the things I write about, they all include things that I’m still working to put into practice. I have not yet mastered anything. What I do know is that when that little voice in my head questions why I did something differently, I can respond the same way that little voice responded to me, “Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.”