Are you smarter than a 4 year old?

I tell people frequently to think like a 4 year old. Every one of them is superman or superwoman. They live life at a level 10, they are not focused on mediocrity or above averageness and they don’t make compromises. It doesn’t mean you always get what you want or you don’t have bad, traumatic, tough, challenging things. There is not one human on the planet that doesn’t have any of those things in their life. That is where we grow. We don’t grow in the good times when life is easy, we don’t reach our potential there. We reach our potential when we are trying to get there. 4 year olds understand that intuitively and unconsciously. They cry at a 10, laugh at 10, climb the monkey bars at a 10, and get mad at each other at a 10. As a consequence, they have mostly 10 results. We all still have that 4 year old in us, it is still there, we just have to remember it.

If you want to understand how powerful and capable you really are, go to a playground and watch a 4 year old child. They have not yet gone into the education system that says, “Sit down, shut up, and look like everybody else.” One of my favorite authors, James Mason Cooper, has awesome quote, “We all came here as incredible, magical, powerful, unique beings. It’s just very sad that most of us will pass on as a copy.” And that copy process begins when we are told to look like everyone else to succeed. And that little first grader tries so hard to succeed in a system that tells them to look like everyone else in your row and color within the lines.

How many first graders goof off and don’t want to learn? They have to be taught cynicism and sarcasm and they have to suspend their belief they had when they were running from the monkey bars to the swings thinking, “I’m a badass, I’m a magical being, I’m superman/woman!”

And they grow up to be adults and many are compliant, good hearted, work hard, try hard, and focus on doing the best they can with what they believe to be true about themselves, their life, and their future. At your core, your heart, you can recover the memory and belief of your power. You can remember how powerful you are. People always say, “If I knew then what I know now…” and that is supposed to make us feel better or empower us, are you kidding me? That is an expression, a mental program, that continues to render you helpless. You can’t go back and have a new beginning, but you can have a new ending. Every day you create your new ending. The real truth is if you could remember now what you knew then, your life would accelerate dramatically.

I don’t have to talk to 4 year olds and tell them how powerful they are. Virtually every one of them gets it. They will look at you like, “You’re just telling me the obvious, doesn’t everyone know that they are powerful and magical? Don’t you get that?!” The sad thing is most adults have forgotten that.  

What are you busy diminishing, devaluing, and taking away from you? You will give all the credit and power to other people in your life, your children, spouse, coworkers, etc., but you don’t do that for yourself. Clients will say to me, “Bill, I have really struggled, and it’s gotten harder.” That’s not true, our strategies for dealing with challenges has gotten weaker. We know there are powerful ways to deal with challenges, and ways to activate and ignite your power. It’s not just motivational mumbo jumbo. There are specific tools, rooted in the latest in neural sciences on how your mind works, that you can use to improve your strategies!