“BE CAREFUL!”
How many times did you hear that as a kid? Likely you heard it as you made your way to the highest branch on the tree, or the top rung of the climber, “be careful”. Or maybe you heard it the first time you strapped on a pair of skis or skates, “be careful.” No doubt your first solo drive behind the wheel of a car, was accompanied by that familiar note of caution, “be careful”.
As kids we’ve all heard it, and as parents, we’ve all said it!!
I bet if you had a dollar for all the times you uttered those two words as a parent, you could use that money to take a pretty sweet vacation!
There is a good reason we use that phrase, especially when parenting, we want our kids to be safe and aware of possible dangers around them. Not saying “be careful” when our kids drag their hockey nets into the middle of the street to play hockey, seems somehow like a dereliction of duty.
“Be careful” is a much-used arrow in one’s quiver of parenting techniques, but how often do we tell our kids to “be bold”? We want to prepare our kids for the adult world, and it seems to me that in life being bold is just as important as being careful. And yet, how often do we overhear a parent yelling, “BE BOLD”?!
I read a quote by Norman Vincent Peale this week in a book called “Dynamic Imaging” in which he said, “too much caution is bad for you. It is usually wiser to stand up to a scary-seeming experience and walk right into it, risking bruises or hard knocks. You are likely to find it is not as tough as you had thought. Or you may find it plenty tough, but also discover you have what it takes to handle it.”
Those are wise words!
It seems to me that living well and living fully, requires equal amounts of caution and courage. At times we need to “be careful”, not just in our actions, but in our words. A life without caution is both reckless and possibly damaging. But too much caution can keep us from honing the skills that allow us to develop into the fullness of our being. Being courageous builds confidence, and confidence helps us to find our place in the world. Or said another way, if we let caution keep us from getting on the bike, we will never know the thrill of flying down a hill at top speed.
Norman Vincent Peale’s words are a great challenge to us. It is easy to shy away from something out of an abundance of caution, and yet as he points out, when we choose instead to be bold and walk right into a scary situation, we may discover depths of hidden strength that we never knew we had. It is a truism that we grow far more by being courageous than we do by being cautious.
