For a long time my favorite fortune was
You have a great capacity for learning from your errors. You will learn a great deal today.
When I first read that I thought, “Oh, Oh! That doesn’t sound good.” But after thinking about it for a while it reminded me of the Zen master Dogen. When asked how he reached enlightenment, he said.
It was just one mistake after another.
The breakthrough for me was when I finally…for the most part…stopped thinking in terms of mistakes and errors. If we get our egos out of the way, we’re free to think in terms of skill development and feedback.
For me that doesn’t always mean jumping into situations where I’m over my head…although I have done that. It also means taking the mastery approach to skill development:
- deciding what skills I want to develop,
- committing to working on them,
- and finding a way of getting feedback as I learn those skills.
For me it also means finding a way of enjoying the process…that’s the only way I’ll keep my commitment. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
This subject is especially relevant to me right now because I’ve just bought the Nintendo Wii Fit. It’s a bit expensive, but it lets you measure your body mass index, balance, agility, etc. And it calculates your “Fit Age”. I thought I was in reasonable shape because I spend at least a half hour a day on my NordicTrack treadmill or jogging trampoline… plus I use the weight machines at the local Y every other day. I spend only 10 to 15 minutes per visit on that, but I figured that was enough to keep myself in reasonable condition. Well, not quite….
My first Wii Fit age was four years over my chronological age because I hadn’t been doing anything on balance and agility. That was enough of a shock to motivate me. So I’ve been doing some Yoga with my Wii personal trainer and also playing some balance/agility games…. my “age” has dropped a lot in just three days. I’m still not doing well on the balance/agility games, but I’ve never been athletic and I am making progress…and it’s fun.
I’m not trying to sell the product to anyone else…the important thing is Nintendo understands motivation. It’s devised a way to make the process enjoyable, even addictive, and it lets us chart our progress. If we’re motivated by competition (I’m not) we can even compete against other people in our household. Not surprisingly, playing with my Wii has added more spice to my life. It all goes back to the optimizing stress curve:
We need a certain amount of challenge in our lives to stay mentally healthy…to feel fully alive. So I’ve rewritten that old favorite fortune to eliminate all references to errors and mistakes:
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love to do and find a way to share it with others.
That’s my new favorite fortune. Please share yours.
I flatter myself that I am a genius! Of the type that Victor Hugo wrote about -“Genius on earth is God giving Himself. Whenever a masterpiece appears, a distribution of God is taking place….”
I depend totally on my impulse to do anything. I too am struggling with my weight and need to lose at least 15 Kgs. Just when I am beginning to hit my stride in my exercise routine and get into the “flow”, I usually pull a muscle somewhere and have to lay off for a few days causing either putting on the lost weight or losing the flexibility. As soon as I feel better, I start off all over again telling myself that, that piece of lay off was God’s will!!
Your advise is another manifestation of getting something in my life to challenge myself irrespective of the discomfort. I intend giving in to that impulse – I am a genius, remember?
rummuser,
Let us know how it goes! Actually I don’t have a weight problem…I solved that one years ago using self-hypnosis plus finding some things I enjoyed better than eating. That last part took quite a while, but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.
The trick on eating, of course, is to focus on building a healthy lifestyle instead of setting a goal to lose X pounds by a certain date. And while exercising it’s important to not overdo it. The Wii Fit actually reminds me to stop and take a break if I’ve been playing too long. That’s a great measure of a successful product, right? To have to be reminded to stop exercising. 🙂
I used to kick myself for my mistakes. Better to be gentle to ourselves & welcome the mistake as a learning lesson.
bikehikebabe,
Good for you! 🙂