My 1st grader recently told me that he learned about the power of yet at school.
“The power of yet? What does that mean?”
“It means that you just haven’t learned how to do something yet. Like, I can’t go across the monkey bars by myself YET. I can practice and probably will do it someday. Just not yet.”
Y’all, have I told you my 7-year-old is a genius?
Kids totally get this concept, but as adults, we’ve forgotten about the power of yet. We beat ourselves up for not doing something perfectly or for not getting it right the first time. We scroll social media and fall prey to a shame spiral of compare and despair. We are envious of how easily things seem to come to other people while it feels so frickin’ hard and overwhelming for us. Somehow those people are (literally and figuratively) competing in triathlons while we’re flailing over here just trying to keep our head above water.
But, what happens when we add in the “yet?”
I don’t feel confident enough to leave my current job…yet
I can’t seem to manage my work and family responsibilities…yet
I don’t know how to prioritize self-care…yet
I don’t feel comfortable asserting myself at work…yet
I haven’t figured out my calling…yet
Those three little letters suddenly flip the script and the statement feels so much more empowering. With “yet,” there’s hope and optimism, possibility and abundance. “Yet” represents a growth mindset, one of constant learning, iterating, and evolving. There’s the knowledge that even if something feels hard now, it will likely get a little bit easier tomorrow and feel a little lighter the day after that. “Yet” means that change is possible and the future seems brighter as a result.
We were at the playground just this past weekend and I watched my son go across the monkey bars by himself. He has been working at that skill for more than two years. He's only seven so two years is a really large chunk of his life. He has fallen off countless times, but he kept getting back up and trying again. The smile on his face and the pride beaming in his chest made it clear that there was indeed a lot of power in yet.
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