Latest / From Chad / Experimenting #1217

Transcript

Experimenting #1217 · From Chad

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  Are you a got to or a get to? There's the story behind that.
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  This is your daily message from Chad #12117 to upgrade your
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  mental game today by telling yourself a better story.
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  Because the most important story you hear is the story you tell
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  yourself. This message is dedicated to
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  Conan Clay Whitaker. Here's the upgrade.
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  You may think curiosity belongs to kids, but upgraded thinking
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  knows curiosity is what keeps a grown person moving.
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  Here's the story. Our three-year old grandson
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  comes over and walks in the door with one request.
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  Mamie, let's do pyramids. That's his word for experiments.
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  Just two syllables and anything that bubbles, fizzes, or changes
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  color is fair game. He loves mixing food dyes.
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  He loves dumping one thing into another and waiting to see what
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  happens. Jamie started doing these with
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  him and I love watching it. He doesn't need the experiment
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  to work, He needs the surprise. The element of surprise is what
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  captivates him. English novelist Ian McEwan put
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  it this way. The standard measure of how
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  alive you are is your curiosity. I think he's right.
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  There's nothing more powerful than a child's curiosity and
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  eagerness to learn. For some reason, the desire to
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  experiment wanes with age. Kids are excited about learning
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  and trying something new. Doctor Gilbert has spent almost
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  50 years teaching at Montclair State University and has written
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  about the same contrast he once described.
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  Driving to campus on the first day of school, he passed a mom
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  with her two boys on the sidewalk.
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  The little one was jumping up and down.
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  He wasn't excited to see Doctor Gilbert.
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  He was excited because the big yellow school bus was right
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  behind his car. After years of walking to the
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  bus stop and watching his Big Brother climb aboard, it was
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  finally his turn. An hour later, Doctor Gilbert
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  walked into his own first class. College students are more savvy
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  and sophisticated than that little boy, but many of them
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  have matured beyond the excitement to learn.
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  They act like they've got to go to school.
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  That little boy was eager to go to school.
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  There's a lot of energy in getting to and not much if you
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  feel you've got to. So here's the question, When did
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  you stop getting to do things and start feeling you had to?
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  That little boy didn't need a reason to be excited, he needed
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  a chance to find out what was next.
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  My grandson is the same way and so are you.
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  The better story to tell yourself is I get to experiment
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  with life. Tell me a story of something you
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  got to do today to from chadsmith@gmail.com since I'm
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  going to text and tell them. What's the last experiment you
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  ran? You can get a free copy of my
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  book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to from
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  chad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message
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  and hundreds of others are always available at
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  www.fromchad.com.