Learning from mistakes as much as from success
Who doesn't like to learn a new skill?
I for one love getting to grips with a new bushcraft technique or a rural skill. It keeps us interested, help us progress and gain knowledge, it keeps the fire for learning alive. I also like to use Instagram to show (off?) what I'm up to. My skills for all to see.
But is this a real representation, or a sugar- coated set of photos showing instant success?
The reason I'm discussing this is due to a podcast I listened to featuring Megan Hine, an adventuring TV safety expert who rigs ropes and high access for the likes of Bear Grylls. She too was worried that what people saw of her on Instagram was only the good stuff. The best shots of sunsets, jungles and extreme activities. No pictures of the mistakes she made along the way to attain these successes. So she decided she would change this by posting her mistakes as well.
In all walks of life a great success is made of many failures, because this is how we grow and learn, from our mistakes. So when we are bombarded on social media, on TV and in films of the perfect lives of perfect people we can all feel like failures, how can we live up to this perfect standard?
We can't, that’s how.
And this makes us feel inferior, affects our mental health and our self-worth. And in this day and age if we can do something to improve or bring attention to peoples mental health all the better.
So Megan's aim to be more 'real' struck a chord with me, and I've decided to do the same. Not just show the images of things that went well, but also the errors along the way.
I hope that showing these bumps in the road to success, or discussing with others the errors I made, will help promote that to learn we must first fail, try again and eventually succeed. Be it in a new way to light a fire, or just in helping us believe that we can light that fire if we try.
Alex
