I was standing in the field with my daughter, a cool bay breeze was blowing off the water. We were getting ready for the whistle to blow and officially begin the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our community beach. Brooke was telling me how fast she was going to run and “Dad I’m going to get 100 eggs!” I was smiling my daddy smile, as I so often do after little sentences like this, when the lady in charge announced that the maximum amount of eggs per kid was 12. Wait a minute ma’am did you just say maximum?
What does a maximum teach our kids?
There are several groups of kids out there vying for eggs. Some are aggressive and given their attitude would no doubt take all of the eggs if they could. Some kids just aren’t aggressive enough. They arrive at the last minute to an egg only to be superseded by the aggressive kid. In the end, they’d get their 12 eggs but probably not more than that. Then there are some that fiddle fart around, pick daisies and feel the cool bay breeze. They’d walk in with their 6 and wonder why they couldn’t get more.
Once you introduce a maximum you eliminate the aggressive kids who want to go above and beyond. You allow those daisy pickers to take their sweet old time and eventually get their 12. What you really do is make everybody average.
Do you want to be average?
No you probably don’t. Are you? Please don’t tell me that you allow maximums to hold you back. I’m hoping you’re that type of person who grabs 25 eggs and doesn’t feel bad for the one holding 6. Look if the 6 kid wants more, he needs to watch what the others do, develop the passion for getting better and come back next year to crush it. That’s how you learn.
It’s like giving kids medals for just playing.
I pretended to not hear the lady in charge. Brooke went out and picked a whole bunch of eggs. Kids were walking off the field and leaving them behind. Brooke grabbed them. We came back with over 2 dozen and didn’t feel bad about that. You’ll say I’m a rule breaker and you’re probably right. I thought it was a silly rule which doesn’t teach the kids anything. Go out and get them…don’t let someone tell you that you can’t.
Life is an Easter Egg hunt.
The eggs are your dreams, aspirations, knowledge. Are you going out there and grabbing as many of them as you can or do you sit in the back, pick daisies and wonder “Why not me?” Don’t let somebody tell you, just before the whistle goes off, that you can just have 12. Go out and get 30. What’s the worst that happens? They’ll kick you out and take your eggs away? Next year just buy the beach, have your own egg hunt and make your own rules.
Happy Easter…go out there today and find some of your own eggs.
