“I got this.”

Words of Wisdom from a 4-year-old

When I thought about writing this post related to self-confidence, I kept racking my brain for famous quotes and words of advice from inspirational leaders. I then realized that the inspiration was living under my roof and under four feet tall.

My 4-year old daughter has a crazy amount of self-confidence. Her coined term whenever she is attempting something new is “Mom, I got this”. This summer her new thing was swimming without floaties. She has taken some swim lessons over the past couple of years but for a mom that worries (spoiler alert- that’s me) I felt like if she was going to be in the pool without an adult an arm’s length away, she needed some sort of floatation device. We went on vacation in June and the kids spent the majority of the time in a pool. Despite my persistent attempts to force her to wear her floatie, she kept taking it off and insisting, “I got this!” To give you a visual, when she “swims”, she looks to a bystander like she doesn’t quite have a handle on it. Her head goes under the water and then pops out just when you are planning to jump in and save her, her confident smile stretching across her cute little face. Watching this performance time and time again, I have had to learn to trust in her confidence in herself.

I have tried to imagine what is going on in her 4-year-old brain of hers to be able to have so much confidence in this and other new activities, when even her parents seem a bit rattled. The obvious answer is that because she is so young, she cannot envision the bad things that could happen should situations go south. Without this fear, she is able to see her goals more clearly and drive towards them without distractions. What fears can you let go of so that you too can see more clearly and say with confidence, “I got this”?

~ Coach Kristin