When I was a kid I wanted to be an adult, I wanted adult things and I wanted an adult lifestyle. Now I look at kids and go, “wouldn’t it be great to be as care free as they are”, I want what they’ve got or perhaps I want their way of living with the adult luxuries.

What is most fascinating about kids is their ability to live in the present. What happened yesterday doesn’t really matter and what is happening tomorrow is neither a concern.

They seem set on what it is they are doing right now. They are fascinated usually with whatever it is that is in front of them. Cartoons on the T.V., the blocks, getting on the scooter, obsessed with play.

The only future anxiety I reckon they face is a future where play does not exist.

Like school, or going to flute practice (certainly not by choice), having a shower or heading to bed. These things have upset us all at some stage and that is because they impede on playtime and our imagination.

Kids laugh all the time. They laugh a lot of the time just because. There needs to be nothing actually funny other than what they are thinking about in their head.

Children laugh 300 times a day compared to us adult species of about 5 times a day.

What happened? We all were kids once.

There is the child fascination with everything when you are young. Can we bring it back?

Imagination is the key to creativity and creativity is the key to action. Kids have this; you can see it in their determination to achieve just about anything they set their minds to.

We all have this yet many of us have lost it along life’s journey.

My 3 year old now loves hair clips, dresses, scissors, Peta rabbit and geckos, among other things. They seem to bring her happiness and always put a smile on her face and always so ‘wowed’ by them all.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we still held that same child like fascination for things in our life? This is passion.

As we go through education we loose our passion. It’s trained out of us so we can get a job and operate in society.

At our job we live to someone else’s passion. We loose that inner urge to be fascinated by stuff in life. We adopt behaviours and addictions instead that bring us immediate reward and satisfaction.

We drink, smoke, watch T.V., shop and consume. We start to loose touch with what it is that is important. All the little things in life become unnoticed, unappreciated and often taken for granted.

We then get caught up in life. Particular many of us hold on to past events, things that we drag around with us expecting that in doing so they will some how be resolved, we will some how be resolved.

We get anxious about what’s to come, we get stressed about the future, what the boss will say, what about the promotion, how far will the next pay go, who is going to say yes.

In many ways our newfound joy and happiness providers create this additional chaos in our life.

Kids seem to forget pretty quickly about what happened yesterday or even 5 minutes ago. And they only seem to get upset about the future when it is immediately affecting their current playtime, thoughts or fascination.

I think for us to live more in the moment and care free we need to watch and observe kids and become a little more playful again.

We need to get fascinated, find some passions, do things that get us excited and make us feel good, and do the small things.

Skip into the office, do a little dance at lunch, laugh uncontrollable at not much, enjoy nature, the breeze, the smells, the stars, play games, draw and scribble, read books, play with out mates, and take all that serious adult stuff less serious.

Relax!

There is nothing more important than what it is you are doing right now. There is nothing so important that it can’t wait another 5 minutes or a day.

I understand that sometimes we have to do some shitty things, stuff that doesn’t really excite us but that’s no reason we cannot laugh and play while doing it.

My daughter mostly doesn’t like having to have a shower, it interrupts her playtime, but as soon as I make it into a game, as soon as I just start laughing suddenly the shower becomes pretty cool.

Each moment we have should be enjoyed. Time is something we never get back so why wouldn’t you enjoy every second of it.

Time is our most precious resource. We can get everything else back. Money and possessions but time we cannot.

I still get anxious and stressed about things to come but am learning how not to allow things to upset me. Living with a child like fascination is one way I am changing this.

My daughter is excited about simple stuff but when I really watch her and listen to her I know it is this simple stuff is what’s really important, lets bring it back.