I am not a Broncos or Panthers fan so I was ambivalent about who won the Superbowl.
Correction, I dislike the Patriots so I was pleased to hear many of their fans carp and cry about Peyton Manning winning another ring.
But I am not here to talk about why I do or don’t like particular people or teams, I am here to share a couple of thoughts and ideas.
Is Confession Really Good For The Soul?
A good friend of I spent an hour talking the other day so that we could catch up on what’s going on in our respective lives.
Midway through they told me about a mistake they made at work and said they didn’t want to own up to it because they work in a place where people look to build themselves up upon the mistakes of others.
I told them I understood because I had been in similar environments and we talked about how it has become cool to encourage people not to fear failure but questioned how many people really mean it.
Because if you look around the world seems to be filled with photos, memes and videos cataloging the failures of others.
In some ways it almost feels as if what is really being said is that “it’s only cool for you to fail when it doesn’t affect me.”
That may or may not an accurate reflection of what is really happening but I have heard from enough people about it to wonder.
I find myself thinking about it as both a father and Everyday Joe.
One of my goals/responsibilities is to help my children grow to become productive and self sufficient members of society so I think about how to help them do it on a regular basis.
That includes actively looking at ways to help them explore the world they live in.
In some ways that is a bigger challenge than it was when they were truly little because middle and high school can be unforgiving about some things.
Might be time to show them the John Wooden video below and have a conversation about it.
A ‘Final’ Thought
Another blogger told me they never want to press publish until they are certain everything is perfect because they don’t want to embarrass themselves.
I understand that too but I fear paralysis of analysis more.
That is not to say I am not cognizant of spelling and grammar errors because I am, but I am also aware that someone might read one paragraph out of 10,000 here and devise an idea about how I am solely upon that.
Someone might spend 10 seconds clicking their way through here and come up with a misconception about who I am and what I am about because of something that has nothing to do with me.
Our control is limited and we have to balance fear of failure and mistakes against that.
What do you think?
I think you’re right balancing fear of failure and mistakes is tricky. The p by a is common and so sometimes you have to walk forward and have faith in yourself and that ultimately things will be fine.
Faith in yourself is really important.
Hey there Josh,
Imagine if the Wright Brothers had never pushed past their fears. We’d still be stuck in our own little worlds.
Or imagine if Yuri Gargarin had kept thinking about all the poor dogs and monkeys that had unsuccessfully gone before him. We’d be limited to wondering if stars really were planets.
The thing is, we can be afraid and safe, but inhibited.
Or we can take a risk, fail, but be truly free.
Why even consider the former?
Cheers,mate!
Hi Danny,
That is the kind of attitude I want to have and the kind I want for my children too. I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the attitude some businesses have but I did think of some friends who fear making any mistake at work because the environment is designed to crush and eat anyone who trips up.
Every time I think of that I shake my head because it seems to me that businesses that make failure a capital offense are harming themselves, but that might be a different post altogether.