The Genius of Routine

April 03, 2018 in Learning to Walk

At seven months old, I focused on the basics of basics; the final touch was to coordinate her limbs and figure out how to balance her weight.

It wasn’t easy; It required us approximately 4 hours of practice per day to train and fine-tune her walking skill. Everything was possible with the support of an essential piece of technology: a broomstick.

She walked five steps without any external support. At eight months she walked 10 meters.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston S. Churchill

With high amounts of regular practice accumulated over the next months of training, she walked 180 meters when she turned one year old.

Adjusting her time walking she got more experienced, and not only walk more, but she also walked better.

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”

— W. H. Auden

20 Oct 2017

A Wake Word To Execute The Command .

March 20, 2018 in Learning to Walk

By six months her memory had progressed considerably, she could stand up and use the furniture to use them as support, she could even stand without support for a moment.

Every morning we started with the same phrase: Ok, big girl, today’s the day, let’s walk!

But there was no movement in her legs; she couldn't walk!. I had definitely missed something important. I needed to get back to my books while she kept practicing in her crib.

Days later while I was holding her in my arms, I said Alexa: play some jazz music. The light ring turned on (Alexa was processing my request), and the music started.

I heard a voice: Ak!

For my surprise my baby girl was saying Alexa in her own words. I remember how fascinating she was trying to imitate me. Then I told her, when I say the word Alexa, you repeat it ok?

Alexa! The blue ring turned on, and she repeated it: Ak! That was funny. I recorded a video and instantly went viral in my mind.

I remembered the core function of Amazon Echo:

“When you want to use Echo, just say the wake word “Alexa” and Echo responds instantly.”

— Amazon

And then suddenly the idea came out:

She doesn't know how to walk because she doesn't know what she needs to start walking. She just needs to move one leg at a time, a wake word to execute the command "move your leg."

Our new wake word was "Step."

From that moment it took us approximately three weeks of practice to get one step at a time with the wake word. With each day of walking, she made more steps, traveled farther distances, and falling less.

“The only freedom you truly have is in your mind, so use it.”

— M.T. Dismuke

16 Sep 2017

High-Quality Work Produced. Part 2

March 18, 2018 in Learning to Walk

At five months, she gained control of her upper body, sit up on her own and increased mobility; Now she needed to strengthen the muscles and to learn stand up.

Working as her trainer, I figured that the best activity to build her standing muscles was holding her in front of me so that she could stand up and then down. (while I was smiling, talking, singing and making funny faces).

I began with one set of twenty repetitions during the first week, and then I increased the sets five times during the next week.

“Even a low-class warrior can surpass an elite, with enough hard work.”

— Goku

She gained strength to carry her body weight, healthy ankles, hips, and an increasingly mature sense of balance.

Her crib was the perfect area for practicing. She first began to stand by pulling herself up in her crib. It was the Ideal height and was easy for her to hold onto. I was constantly cheering her up to keep her holding and staying on the railing.

“Motivation can’t take you very far if you don’t have the legs.”

— Lance Armstrong

I gave her plenty of time each day to explore and develop her skills on her own, so she became more interested in hitting the walking milestone.

03 Sep 2017

High-Quality Work Produced. Part 1

March 13, 2018 in Learning to Walk

Based on the successful beta test of the social domesticated human interaction, I decided to practice the same principles in her learning to walk. I knew that she needed exercising her little muscles to hold up her head, roll over, sit up and finally walk. So I began to experiment on herself.

Each day, whether was batting at an object, kicking her legs, she was exercising her muscles; I became her trainer.

She was spending the majority of her time on her back and turning her over onto her stomach helped build the muscles in her neck, arms, shoulders, and back.

“Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.”

— Ann Voskamp

She had five-minute sessions (while I was smiling, talking, singing and making funny faces) looking around, reach and kick. I increased gradually the sessions to 20 minutes each day, finishing with 3 hours at four months every day consolidating her work into intense and uninterrupted sessions, following the law of productivity:

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

In pure numbers, by maximizing her intensity in training, she optimized the results she produced per unit of time spent working. It worked out!

At four months she was standing, alignment her body and building balance.