Lessons from a Grasshopper

You've gotta start somewhere... Just do it... One step at a time...

I watched this grasshopper for several minutes as she negotiated the challenge of the vertical obstacle she wanted to overcome.

Of course she could have jumped using all the power of her back legs. She's very good at jumping. But in this situation jumping would have led to a nice headache.

So instead, the grasshopper slowly and carefully stepped off of the piece of wood while reaching with her front legs.

She then used her back legs, the jumping legs, for support only. The grasshopper steadied herself for a few moments, with her jumping legs stilled, until she found her bearings and felt comfortable.

After some time the grasshopper felt strong enough to release the back leg of support and grasp the wall fully with all four of her legs.

She then scrambled up the wall and jumped over it to be rewarded with the open patch of grass on the other side.