13th July 2010 is a very special day for us.  After all, my daughter Sanika, turns 5 on that day.

All these 5 years have been a journey of self discovery for me.  Being with Sanika all these years, observing her, teaching her, fighting with her, talking to her, loving her and sometimes scolding her has taught me several lessons in life. 

As she turns 5 today, I would like to share few lessons I have learnt in my life from Sanika which will stay with me for life.

Be inquisitive

Sanika has a curious mind and she always wants to know reasons on what we are doing. She always observes the situation and keeps on asking the questions until she is satisfied, or … I am absolutely irritated with her questions.  Why? is her favourite question. 

I believe asking right questions is a very positive thing one should do in life. Most of the times we assume things and keep quite and assumptions do not often turn true, hence eventually getting into conflicts etc., Sanika teaches me to ask questions about situation and myself until the time I am satisfied.

Be unconditionally positive

One of the best part of being a child, is that world always beautiful. Sanika teaches me to be unconditionally positive about everything. 

She has one basic assumption.  “The world is full of good people, until proven otherwise” and her responses based on this assumption make everyone around her happy.

Over a period of time when we grow up, we tend to observe and remember bad experiences far longer than simple good experiences. Thus making us forget this basic life principle. If you think carefully, as we grow up, we tend to make our assumption as “World is full of wicked, bad people, until proven otherwise”. The more we think like this, tougher the life becomes.

Forgive and patch up !

Yes, it takes guts to forgive and patch up with someone whom you have just fought. Myself and Sanika often get into conflicting situations, resulting into fights and us both not talking to each other for a while. However, more often than not Sanika makes first move to patch up and I appreciate her for that.

As we grow up, our ego grows up too and sometimes it becomes more powerful than what we ourselves are. Thus, preventing us to make a first move in order to resolve the conflict.

Sanika teaches me to be myself in the conflicting situations to avoid further damage to relationships etc.

Explore the world !

Sanika is a brave girl who likes to explore new things in life. Probably it comes from the fact that she has been a huge fan and follower of the cartoon character of Dora the explorer.  She loves the character so much that in her early ages she used to pretend to be Dora, relegating me to carry out the duties of Boots the Monkey !

Often, this bravery has landed us in big troubles. Especially when she ‘escapes’ to explore things in a big shopping mall herself.  The lesson that Sanika gives me here is to keep an open mind to new experiences and situations. She makes her moves / decisions based on the situation as it comes and does now allow her presumptions, assumptions to come in her way to respond in a different way than normal.

Know what you really want, just go for it !

Sanika, at this early age, knows what she wants to do and has developed few passions.  Swimming has been one of the passions that she has developed. She was always fan of water games, however since last few months she has developed a tremendous passion for Swimming and has learnt it within few weeks.  Believe me, I did not support her in the venture as I myself do not know swimming. She persisted and pestered her grand father to teach her swimming and did not leave it until she has learnt it completely herself. 

Her current passion is cycling !

I think it is important lesson for everyone to know what they really want to. Moreover, be fully committed to achieve it in life. Most of the people, I have seen prefer being driven by system or surroundings, however Sanika teaches me to have goals in life and be fully dedicated to achieve it.

Indeed, someone has said, its never too late to learn … but in Sanika’s case its equally true that its never too early to teach !

Earlier I wrote another blog about how my younger son teaches me important lessons of life.  You may read them here ‘5 things to learn from 6 month olds!’

Tags: inspiration, kids, learning, lessons, life, motivation, positive thinking