Life essentials, kindergarten version

Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life – Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. – Robert Fulghum , “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”

Remember kindergarten? You know, the good old days of naps, fingerpainting, playtime, milk and cookies and learning the basics? How long has it been since you have been to kindergarten? If you’re on this page, reading this post, I think it’s a safe assumption to say that it’s been awhile… And while the kindergarten memories can accompany you for your whole life, people usually forget the basic lessons learned in those blissful, carefree years.

I have a lot of memories from my kindergarten years. A lot of friends I had back in kindergarten are still some of my closest peeps. I feel I have their back no matter what and they feel the same.

I remember one time when they took the swings away from us because one kid was swinging too high and for some reason he jumped off, straight into a wall…

I could probably write a whole book about my memories from the kindergarten years, but what I want to talk about here are the lessons learned back then. They are so simple and yet so easy to forget.

Share Everything. As we become older, many of these lessons become more complicated, the gray areas widen and the rules seem harder to follow. Consider “share everything” for instance. Someone tried applying that to music industry not long ago and the result was Napster. The record industry and the government quickly told us that sharing everything in music over the Internet was illegal.

Still, that doesn’t mean the rules that applied in kindergarten can’t have meaning in our adult lives. We are free to share our knowledge. And the free exchange of knowledge brings all kinds of rewards. Try it!

Play Fair. Regardless of what “game” you’re playing, don’t cheat or try to bend the rules. It’s not worth it, there is a big chance that you’ll get caught and penalized for your actions. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day… How to know when you’re cheating? If you have to ask yourself if a method you used is cheating, then most likely it is. Play fair, respect the other children.

Be Kind. Nothing is stopping you from being generally kind to everyone you meet. You shouldn’t feel like some hostility is needed with certain people, or some boundaries and lack of communication are required. If someone bothers you, remember what you did in kindergarten: you didn’t hang out with them – remember to keep a polite attitude. Being kind has a profound impact in the lives of others but you may not know how much of a positive health benefit it delivers to you as well. People who perform acts of kindness would agree that being kind to someone else makes them “feel good.” Scientific research shows that it not only can make you feel good but being kind has a significant health benefit, both physically and mentally.

Don’t Hit People. It may seem fun to criticize others, but it definitely doesn’t feel good when the shoe is on the other foot. After all, what goes around comes around.

Clean Up Your Own Mess. If you make a mess of something because of your actions, apologize, fix the problem and move on. Learn from your mistakes and don’t let the same mistake happen again. The more you grow up the more of a mess you can make, so learning to clean it is very important.

Don’t Take Things That Aren’t Yours. Stealing is taking something that doesn’t belong to you. It is a bad and unethical action. Stealing may be keeping something that you have found without trying to find who owns it, or it may be copying heaps of stuff from a book or from the internet and pretending that it is your own work. Imagine yourself in the kindergarten years: what if you had just saved up enough for a new bike and someone stole it? Not a nice thought.

Say You’re Sorry When You Hurt Somebody. If your actions ever offend someone, say you’re sorry, and mean it. One of the things that shows sincerity and remorse better than anything is action. What I mean by that is making a conscious effort not to repeat the same offense again. If you find yourself apologizing time and time again for the same offense not only does it show a lack of remorse but also shows that you really don’t care…

Take A Nap Every Afternoon. Remember to disconnect from your work and take a break from time to time. Doing this will bring you back with new ideas and refreshed to keep moving forward.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. I like this one. Very much. Think what a better world it would be if we all had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon!

Well, the milk and cookies paragraph is irresistible, I’m off to eat some – I’ll share them with if you’d like. See you on the next article!

(man, these cookies are absolutely delicious!)

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