Learning to walk is one of the BIG milestones you achieve as you develop from being an infant requiring constant care, to a child that now has mobility to go explore and find things.

It takes practice, encouragement and a bit of space.  It is probable that you will get a few bumps and bruises along the way and not uncommon for children to fall and hurt themselves, or at least surprise themselves thoroughly as their bottoms quickly meet the floor.  But resilience is definitely a childhood trait and you persevere.

Caregivers quickly realize when this momentous occasion occurs.  The moment is recorded and shared and there is a sense of achievement, quickly followed by a heightened awareness of your exact physical location, as caregivers blink and you are in the next room, on top of the bar stool, opening a cupboard…

But the moment passes and from that point forward, you don’t get extra recognition for something you already know since it is a skill you have mastered.  Although there are some challenges to walking later in life, (such as the winter weather on the east coast, or loss mobility in your old age), you know HOW to walk.

Mastering the skill of walking  then opens up your access to the world, as you GO to the object you’d like to touch and taste.  You notice things around you that other people don’t really see.  (Especially things under the couch or table.)  You have new challenges of identifying the world around you.  You learn about falling, pinched fingers, HOT.  You also learn about tastes and smells and you interact more with everyone and everything.

Fast forward to your teenage years.  Your first job IS your dream job, in that someone will hire you and train you, and you will get money of your own on a regular basis.  It is not usually the job you want to have for life, and it usually builds some basic skills you have (dishwasher, yard maintenance, stocking shelves, etc.), as well as training you in additional skills.  At some point, you’ll change jobs, whether that is after mastering the skills of your first job, or maybe after just deciding you you don’t like the work.  The security you have at home can give you more freedom to make abrupt changes in your “career.”

Now your first job is behind you, and your definition of your “dream job” has changed.  You’d like to get paid well doing something that you enjoy.  Unfortunately, over time, this can become an impossible dream, as you factor security into the equation.  At this point, you may not have the same freedom you had as a teenage to stop doing what you are currently doing and make a major career change.  This can be a very real limiting factor in your choices.

But there is also a sense of comfort in doing what you know.  A challenge can be seen as an opportunity to fail, rather than an opportunity to grow.  You become afraid of falling, rather than striving for the sense of accomplishment at the end of a string of struggles and falls that you persevere through.