training life skills

Source of the image

There is quite a number of 'things' that makes us (homo sapiens) different from other species on this earth.

We are able of dong things that others are not equiped for, or are not able of doing it to the extent we are capable of it.

It is what defines us as a being human.
Our life depends on it (surely the quality ( ' how enjoyable') , sometimes even the quantity ( 'how long'') ...
That is......our life as a (optimally functioning) human being...
A human being that makes the most of his natural talents and his time on earth.

How 'more' important to being a human being a skill is, the earlier you'll start with using it... and by using it......training it. Becoming as good as you can be, at it.
You 'need' to be fairly 'good' at these skills, for this being a human being to be a succes/joy.

Let's have a little look.

As from day one you are able to:

• take oxygen and milk
• grow while you sleep
• release waste-materials

Excellent.
You are capable of rotating 3 elementary things... input, transformation and output.
Congratulations... you are alive.

After only a couple of days, the life skill that you'll benefit from using a lot in your life as a human being, gets shown to the world. You smile.

From there, upwards and onwards.

Even when you are still laying on your tummy or back, you do this 'primate' thing with the opposable thumb-finger combination. You cannot only graps things, you can delicately pick things up and put them down, with this tool.

The ' floor' perspective on life is very interesting.
However.. unique to being a human is to be able to walk, upright, independantly. Challenge gravity. Using the energy of ' falling' to the benefit of 'moving forward'. Freeing up your arms to carry things, lifting your eyes to a high point so you can see further ( threads as well as oppertunities).
This needs practise, so you start early on it life with this. Around the age of two, you are reasonably steady on your legs, under not too challenging circumstances for more than a couple of meters, while carrying 'stuff'.

You start two-way communicating right away, non-verbally.
But since the unique human skill of communicating by 'speaking' is so important, you start doing this before you are 1 year old ( although there are exceptions... Einstein, my father... they witnessed the world quite a while longer before starting to speak...).

Then, at the age of two, this apprentice master of the Universe is ready for an exciting new toy.
Exercising the palette of choice! How to MIND? ( Manage Information for New developments)?
How to influeence the world with your choices. How are you influenced by the choices of others?
What a fantastic toy/tool to play with.

The fact that a human being starts with this skill sooooo early on in life, may be an indication of the importance to being a human being.....

It is the stage where the 2-year old discovers using ' NO', at will.

It drives most parents to madness, because it gets mainly exercised on them and on important things ( like food intake) 

( He, this skills is about really important things in social context.. so better apply it on things that matter when other human beings are involved, huh, for the highest quality learning experience?)

"What do you want?" (no response .. or a body language.... go away, leave me alone, nothing)
" But you have to eat something!" (refusal signs... toddler knows and gets confirmed... food is important)
"Try a bite of this..." ( clear 'NO' signs, non-verbally..... more and more... also verbally:" No, I don't want this")

Despair is kicking in now with parents..... toddler observes closely... now it gets interesting. This is fabulous stuff. Discovery channel live:" How does a human being open up the palette of choice under circumstances where another doesn't want what you want (it to take in or do)......?"

Learning oppertunity from the pro's, humans with more than 20 years of experience with using this important  life skill. Cool! 

A strategy many (desperate) parents than chose is applying the either..... or....... option..... with quite some force behind it.

OK, this is how it goes. You'll either have this potato, or that vegetable, NOW. ( The human in casu is clearly angry... also stronger, bigger and your life depends on their supply of goodies... and.. it is clear now.... an option to deal with ' resistance' is to fight it. Force your will upon the other.

OK, this is how it goes. You'll either do as I say or I leave you and you'll have nothing at all. The human being is again showing two options.. take it as it is, or I will leave you and not feed you at all. Abandon supplying you with things I know you need. 

All very fascinating human behaviour, examples of how adult humans (can) use their palette of choice.

And, let's face it:

• either... or....    and
• none of the above

are on the palette of choice and can be very usefull to use ( wisely) under a multitude of circumstances.

The toddler needs ( for it's future (social) survival)  to find out under which circumstances, which palette get's used .. since that will give hem the information that that is considered using it 'wisely'.
Why would a human ( homo sapiens... the knowing man.... otherwise use it, if there are better options available....?

The child keeps creating these learning oppertunities. How will 'they' respond to me ' this time', under these circumstances, on this topic......?

After having quite some experience playing with the ' human palette of choice', the young child has made it's mind up on how to use the palette of choice.

Hopefully, there have been quite a number of adults who provided also the learning material on ' both..... and.....' and communicating from another position than ' fear' of 'lack'
Adults who showed, living by example, the joy of  human skills like ' improvising', of ' recycling ideas', of delving into the underlying values of choices.... of 'composing 'new ideas' out of elements of ready-made options'. Of being resourceful, interested, open minded, seeing the fun (and increase of survival rates and wellbeing)  in co-creation......too.

I can hear my parents now in the back of my mind saying:" He, that's easy for you to say... you don't have children!"

I appreciate that.

I'd like to think that I have 'saved my breath'.
That I have not felt any inclination to invest my time and energy in helping one or two children  'of my own' with these life skills at an early age, could very well be my best contribution to the survival of the species.
To be a living example to how-ever-many children of the tribe of mankind, at any age, would like to exercise this life skill...... with a fully open palette of choice..... wisely.