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LIFE
Being a Baby Again
When is the last time you were a baby at something?
I was catching up with a good friend this past week. At the start of the conversation, we both shared with each other that we were embarking towards new careers. For both of us, these careers are completely different from what we were trained for by our studies in higher education and by our employment history.
We were both excited to be starting something new. But, most importantly, we were both excited to not know anything about what we were getting into. We were, for the first time in a long time, “babies at something”.
I first heard the concept of being “a baby at something” from a video on Instagram by GaryVee. In the video, GaryVee glorified the humble experience of being completely new at something. You don’t know how to do it, therefore you are learning — like a baby is learning to crawl until they learn to take their first step and then run.
The video prompted the viewer to ask themselves when was the last time that they were completely new at something? Completely new means that you have absolutely no previous experience nor transferrable skills that may aid with that task. It’s like learning mandarin after spending the first 30 years of your life speaking only English.
