Six months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 193.
Yesterday, I talked about what our dreams can teach us. Today is a new day.
It's reasonable to go with the tried and true methods laid out before us, but when walking down the safe route there's a diminished sense of adventure and discovery. When I travel around Japan and explore different sightseeing spots most people end up doing the same things and going the same routes. Of course, there are cool things to see at the main spots, but there's always something left unappreciated wherever you go and so it's sometimes good to stray from the herd and go out on your own.
Life is full of pain. The pain of failure is one that eats away at us, but one thing that's even worse is the pain of regret. Knowing that we could've done something but didn't take action. We can't predict our future and we'll make mistakes along the way, but without trying and putting effort into doing things we cannot grow. Looking back on my life I regret not taking action in a lot of things. I regret letting my fear of rejection keep me from reaching out to more people. I regret being so easy to give up on races and not giving it my all when I was on the track team. I regret half-assing a lot of my youth because I thought I "knew" my efforts would've been futile.
Such is life, but when I think about these regrets I think about how I don't want to repeat those mistakes. I no longer want any regrets and so I have the desire to not let my fear of failure stop me from doing anything. Rather, I want to embrace that fear and challenge it. So what if I fail? Don't sweat it and move on. If we dwell on our mistakes we end up planting seeds of negativity that will sprout and affect our future. As the seeds germinate and grow stronger so do our doubts and worries. If we, on the other hand, plant seeds of hope and optimism, we learn to see challenges in a completely different way. In this sense we become what we think about, so if we want to start trying, it all starts with a single thought: "just do it".
Peace
Yesterday, I talked about what our dreams can teach us. Today is a new day.
"Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try." Jack CanfieldAs a teacher you have to spice things up from time to time in class otherwise the students will get used to the routine and although this can help some, it generally bores others. In preparing for my classes it's usually hard for me to think of new things to try because it really depends on the class' mood at the time, which requires a lot of flexibility. Some days things don't work out and I strike out badly. I tried a new game with my kids yesterday and they didn't understand the explanation at all so I had to leave it behind and move on to something else. As the lesson went on and I taught them more structures I tried it again, but this time the kids picked up on what I was trying to tell them and things went all right. What was once a failure turned into a success. I just had to set up the activity properly.
It's reasonable to go with the tried and true methods laid out before us, but when walking down the safe route there's a diminished sense of adventure and discovery. When I travel around Japan and explore different sightseeing spots most people end up doing the same things and going the same routes. Of course, there are cool things to see at the main spots, but there's always something left unappreciated wherever you go and so it's sometimes good to stray from the herd and go out on your own.
Life is full of pain. The pain of failure is one that eats away at us, but one thing that's even worse is the pain of regret. Knowing that we could've done something but didn't take action. We can't predict our future and we'll make mistakes along the way, but without trying and putting effort into doing things we cannot grow. Looking back on my life I regret not taking action in a lot of things. I regret letting my fear of rejection keep me from reaching out to more people. I regret being so easy to give up on races and not giving it my all when I was on the track team. I regret half-assing a lot of my youth because I thought I "knew" my efforts would've been futile.
Such is life, but when I think about these regrets I think about how I don't want to repeat those mistakes. I no longer want any regrets and so I have the desire to not let my fear of failure stop me from doing anything. Rather, I want to embrace that fear and challenge it. So what if I fail? Don't sweat it and move on. If we dwell on our mistakes we end up planting seeds of negativity that will sprout and affect our future. As the seeds germinate and grow stronger so do our doubts and worries. If we, on the other hand, plant seeds of hope and optimism, we learn to see challenges in a completely different way. In this sense we become what we think about, so if we want to start trying, it all starts with a single thought: "just do it".
Peace
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| As long as there's a tomorrow we can still make progress. The romance of a new dawn is in knowing there are new possibilities. |
What's something you've failed in doing? How can you grow from that experience?
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