What I Learned from the Great Kitten Rescue by Kim Vermaak

This weekend our 8 week old kitten, Tigger climbed to the top of a massive tree in our garden could not get out. Colin (my husband) had to conduct the great kitten rescue and his journey to get to the kitten made me think if there were any lessons to be learned.

  

Lesson Number 1: You have to try

  

Everyone needs to learn by trial and error. Climbing the tree was not the "real" problem for the kitten, as cats are designed to climb, just as we as human beings are designed to create, and climb to new heights.

  

The problem was the kitten was inexperienced and when it got very high, it got a bit terrified and did not know what to do next. Sometimes when we are reaching for our dreams, we also get afraid and don't know what to do next.

  

Lesson 2: Know when to call for help.

  

Both the kitten and my children knew that they could not do this alone, so they called for help. Sometimes you face a real challenge and you need to have a team to call on, to navigate your current obstacles or problem.

If you allow yourself to get stuck in the circumstances, you will not progress. Sometimes you need a little help. That help, may be to realign your vision. It may be needing a referral or some sort of resource.

Needing help does not make you a loser, it makes you a team player.

  

Lesson 3: Ask the right person for help. 

When you call for help, choose the right person for the job. No one in the rescue told the kitten not to climb trees. They were born to be climbers.

In your life don't call for the person who is going to tell you not to climb the tree. So many of us try something and when it does not work at first, we go to lament our problems with family or friends who have never gone through what we have gone through or who have quit on their dreams.

Go to someone who has tried what you want to do and found a way to win and who can be an encouragement to you when you are pushing for your goal.

Lesson 4: Clear away the debris that is blocking your way.

When Colin climbed the tree, he found lots of loose dead branches that were stopping him from getting closer to the kitten. He had to put on some protective gloves to clear the debris. He needed a solid footing to get the kitten. Most of the branches were strong enough to take his 6.3ft frame, but the loose branches that were in the way would have caused him to slip and render him and the kitten incapable of coming down.

Evaluate you circumstances and see if there are any situations or people that are holding you back from achieving your goal and begin to clear away the debris. Anything that clouds your vision needs to be moved away. Maybe your debris is that you may need to get rid of some debts that are affecting your ability to get funding or maybe it is a old way of thinking. Maybe it is a friendship that is not letting you grow

Lesson 5: Listen the correct voices.

We were all calling to the kitten to come down, assuming that just by calling and encouraging, we could coax the kitten down. But only Colin was high enough to see what holding the kitten back. He had already climbed up to a point to add real value to the situation.

This does not mean that you need to abandon all your relationships, rather sift through your friendships and family and put them in the correct place. Your family members that have not journeyed where you are heading, have a place in your life, but they cannot be your coach.

Lesson 6: Have the courage to start again.

The best lessons are those learned through pain. Pain is there to teach us a better way of doing things, not to immobilize us. You do not need to be prefect in your journey. You just need to be willing to learn and apply what you have learned. When you were a baby, you did not stop learning to walk when you fell down, you simply got up and tried again and again.

Lesson 7: Be an encouragement to others.

When the kitten knew that help was on its way, he actually had the courage to come the last bit of the way himself and Colin did not actually have to climb all the way up to the very top. We all cheered when the kitten came down. Even if you are going through a challenge yourself, be encouraging to others. You will never know whether that final cheering on, could be the very thing that catapults them into success.

So now that you have learned some lessons from the Great Kitten Rescue, share this article and Be more, Do more, Have more.