Lessons from my toddler and a cat - Perseverance, persistence, obstacles and paying the price

Any parent who has tried to lull a restless toddler to sleep knows the frustration. You’re tired, it’s late and your energetic child refuses to calm down and sleep. They are hungry and thirsty and have a million things to do before bedtime. They become wannabe scholars to such quandaries as “Is it dark out?” and “Where did you get this?” (pointing to every object in their room.) But, eventually, sleep comes. You tip-toe out of the room careful not to step on any sharp unseen Legos and if you do you swallow the pain until you are clear earshot.

By the time you can drag yourself off to bed, you welcome the sandman in and could sleep on a bed of hot coals and sharp spikes if need be. And for a few hours, sleep is a grand adventure full of dreams and silence, and then, an hour before the alarm goes off, the cat cries out for breakfast.

I suspect all cats know the tricks of the trade of how to demand attention. This often involves knocking small items off of shelves and pawing at the owner’s face while whining in his high-pitched cat way. And short of a fire hose, no amount of thrown pillows or books will stop him from his persistent demands for food.

But where there are obstacles, there are lessons that can be learned.

Perseverance

We often find ourselves tired and drained and on the verge of giving up but that does not mean we should stop asking questions because someone told us too.

The toddler, after much argument, loses to the sandman and sleeps. But for a while, a long time in fact, he held his ground despite being tired and he kept asking questions.

Persistence

It’s your hunger that drives you toward that need you have. Persistence need not be annoying towards somebody else but used for what it is. As a guide along the long hard road to your dreams.

A hungry cat will not stop until they have succeeded in convincing someone to fill their food dish, and neither should I. Although in this case, the hunger is real, my food — the unwritten page and I have only myself to pester and annoy until I fill that page and quench my hunger for progress.

Obstacles

I first read the above quote in Ryan Holiday’s book THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY — The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. and it changed the way I perceive everything. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

As the title of the book implies, the obstacles in your life can thrust upside down and used to your advantage. For this post, my obstacles are a lack of personal time due to a hungry cat and a nonsleeping son (I swear he has a stash of Red Bull somewhere). This frustrated me to no end and, still does but now I use the frustration as the teacher it is and not the obstacle it used to be.

If not for my cat’s hunger I would not have gotten up and started this story.
If not for my son staying up late I would not have thought of this story.

A teacher is not always more educated or a master of a craft. A teacher can be a child, a pet, a situation, a job, an enemy, anything at all. So sit up and pay attention, raise your hand and, when not asking questions, listen, because the world has a load of knowledge it’s trying to teach you.