My co-worker and I both had quarter-life crises this morning. Both of us decided that today would be the perfect day to decide what to do with the rest of our lives. Turned out we were wrong.

After I ran through a list of possible careers for my co-worker, I decided we would poll the kids I coach. Keep in mind the kids I coach are ages 5-8. Their responses were priceless. They told us to become clowns and ventriloquists. They told me to become a music teacher (this is particularly amusing because I’m tone deaf), and they told my co-worker to be Willy Wonka when he grows up.

Listening to them reminded me of how great it is to be 6 years old. When you’re 6, life is pretty simple. It reminded me of kid-philosophy and everything I love about it. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned from the 8 and unders.

- Lesson No. 1: Nothing is worth crying over for more than five minutes. It can all be fixed with a band-aid or a cookie.

- Lesson No. 2: Ask questions. The number of times a day I get asked “Wait, is freestyle on my tummy?” astounds me, but at least they’re not afraid to ask.

- Lesson No. 3: Don’t worry about what you “should” or “shouldn’t” eat. If you want ice cream (and it's OK with mom) eat it. Don’t antagonize over it.

- Lesson No. 4: Dance. I’ve written about this before, but seriously, it’s OK to dance.

- Lesson No. 5: Give homemade gifts. The gifts I cherish the most are the pictures I’ve had drawn for me.

- Lesson No. 6: Apologize. Little kids are always willing to admit it when they hurt someone, and they always fix it.

- Lesson No. 7: Run fast. Play hard. Have fun.

I once read the quote “Everything worth knowing, we learn in childhood.” I can’t find anywhere who it’s attributed to, but it’s always stuck in my head. While kids can’t do multi-variable calculus (neither can I, for that matter) or write novels or win Nobel prizes, they do have an amazing life-philosophy.