It’s interesting to me how strongly things that we do as children can affect how we think and act on things as adults.  I have two bits of history that I’d like to share with you that have given me a fresh bit of insight on how to approach things as an adult.  How I’m finding a personal path on the journey to “getting things done”.

Little Prospector

When I was young, some of my favorite memories were from when I was in New Mexico with my Aunt and Uncle.  They lived deep in the Gila Mountains in a small cabin.  Imagine a place out of time, with no electricity or indoor plumbing.  Wildlife was everywhere, and whenever you had to use the bathroom, you secretly hoped that there wasn’t a rattlesnake waiting for you on the trip to the outhouse.

Anyway (getting back to my story), my Aunt and Uncle did a fair amount of gold prospecting up in those mountains.  They taught me some of the tricks that made a lasting impression on me, even at a young age.  I found it much more active and creative than fishing, and far less violent than hunting.  It made me happy.

When it comes down to panning, the goal is to use the clear mountain water from a nearby running stream to swirl around the dirt in your pan.  Slowly break down the particles into small stones and pebbles, washing away the mud while trying to find the shiny bits.

Paper Daydreams

I also (not to anyone’s surprise, I’m sure) spent a lot of time writing little stories and drawing little pictures, even when I wasn’t supposed to.  It was creative, it was fun, it was daydreaming, and it got me in trouble (a lot).  My daily doodles cut into classwork, and probably hurt my overall education, but without my inner distractions, my odd little life would have become exponentially more difficult than it already was.  I’m willing to bet that more than a few of you can relate to me with this.

Specifically, the part of doodling and writing that I want to focus on for this particular article however, is how quickly those tasks are mastered, even by children.  The idea is simple:  start with a very basic idea and continue adding detail to it until it seems complete.  It can be a circle, a line, a box, or whatever - and the next thing you know, you’ve added enough drawing to the base idea that you’ve got something worth showing your mom.

Comparatively Thinking

So… if panning for gold is a way of eliminating things to find your result, and drawing a picture is a way of adding things to find another result, then surely there’s a way that these have somehow been some kind of training for what I already know as an adult.

To take this a step further, although I tend to take concepts and problems in bite-sized chunks - I’m not, by any means, a linear-thinker.  I like to circle my problem from all aspects, like water filtering down the dirt until I can see my goal clearly.  At the same time, I keep doing this until I have added enough detail to the an entire project that (like an illustration) it appears whole when viewed from a distance.

And now you - my dear and humble reader, what is it that you’ve learned as a child that has subliminally guided you into whatever it is you are now?  Can you see your weaknesses and understand why they are there?  Is there an adjustment in your process that needs to be tweaked?