Do your best.

I attended a kid's birthday party this past weekend. One thing that I really remember is the conversation between a 5-year-old girl and her dad. He asked her what their three rules are for playing games. Her response rolled right off her tongue like she's really been trying to learn these points.

* Have fun.
* Do your best.
* Keep trying.

I thought that these were some great lessons to impress upon kids and, actually, on anyone who is going to get involved with anything where they might feel too small, too slow, too unprepared, too inflexible, too unconfident, etc.

How many new experiences do we as adults back down from because we are afraid that we won't look like the other people at the gym or we don't have a buddy to go with us or we think everyone is much more skilled? If you think about that, it's fairly sad. We push kids and teenagers to excel and try, yet somewhere down the line we accept that "trying" is for kids and the status quo is for us. Imagine if you saw a kid try and play Four Square on the playground and they lost the game and didn't ever want to play again. I'm sure most adults would push them to go back. What words would we say? You can't get better if you don't try? Everyone starts somewhere? Maybe it was just a bad day? Hey, that was only your first time?

We shouldn't let that be any different for adults. I mean geesh do you think everyone at your workout class or gym or yoga session has been doing this for five years? I doubt it. Like you tell your kids, they all had to start somewhere.

I was thinking of this last night since lately there have been newbies in all the yoga classes I've attended. The teacher always congratulates them for making it through their first session and then the rest of us clap for them. It's tough being new and inexperienced and unsure. I'm not arguing that. But remember: You're only new the first time. Just go and get that over with.