Thursday, August 09, 2018
I Like Sometimes To Reflect On Things I Have Learned
By: Donovan Baldwin
I like sometimes to reflect on things I have learned over the last 73 years simply by being around long enough to learn them.
See?
That's part of the learning process, whether it's in elementary school, university, a career, or even life.
Learning, not just a simple skill, such as threading a needle, but, a range of "tasks" or skills which make up a larger whole... takes time... and effort... but, that's another discussion.
To my mind, and in my experience, every day is a day in class.
Just as a student of mathematics, physics, literature, biology, zoology, all the -ologies is NOT finished until "the end", and, either all is learned, or the student is no longer capable of learning... so it is with life.
Learning doesn't end with today's "class". It starts with tomorrow, and, making final judgments based on our, so far, incomplete curriculum is a bit rash.
You may learn something tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, which makes you understand and appreciate all the "learning" which went before, often with it's aches and pains and efforts and successes and (apparent) failures.
Whatever you're learning... give it time.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
I like sometimes to reflect on things I have learned over the last 73 years simply by being around long enough to learn them.
See?
That's part of the learning process, whether it's in elementary school, university, a career, or even life.
Learning, not just a simple skill, such as threading a needle, but, a range of "tasks" or skills which make up a larger whole... takes time... and effort... but, that's another discussion.
To my mind, and in my experience, every day is a day in class.
Just as a student of mathematics, physics, literature, biology, zoology, all the -ologies is NOT finished until "the end", and, either all is learned, or the student is no longer capable of learning... so it is with life.
Learning doesn't end with today's "class". It starts with tomorrow, and, making final judgments based on our, so far, incomplete curriculum is a bit rash.
You may learn something tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, which makes you understand and appreciate all the "learning" which went before, often with it's aches and pains and efforts and successes and (apparent) failures.
Whatever you're learning... give it time.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
Labels: donovan baldwin, failure, learning, life lesson, time, tomorrow
Thursday, October 05, 2017
A Fear Of Flying..And Other Things...
By: Donovan Baldwin
Many years ago, I had a terrible fear of flying.
Not sure what got rid of it...maybe my first marriage. That was enough to make me think I could handle anything.
Anyway, on one flight, my boss, a PhD psychologist, tried to talk me out of it in a clinical way. He told me just to shut my eyes, and imagine myself riding horses with him on his little patch of land, which we had done a few days earlier.
After a minute of this, I burst out, "Shut up, Richard! We're in a metal coffin in the air and we're all gonna die!"
Said it rather loudly, so I wasn't too popular for the remainder of that flight. Kind of miffed my boss too.
He gave up, and I white-knuckled it to the destination.
Even I laugh at the story now, as I doze off while the plane's taking off, landing, or at any part of the flight.
The point is, that when we believe something, believe it to our very core, just throwing some words at us isn't going to make us change our minds.
Richard even tried to quote statistics about the safety of flying. I had heard them all. They didn't do anything to ease my irrational fear of flying.
I guess that's also the point.
If we believe, often even the facts won't be enough to change our fear of failure or expectation of defeat.
We don't want to let go of belief, even when we know we are wrong.
Still, the plane did land safely, and you and I have done a lot of things we thought we couldn't. Guess that's the real story here.
Not sure what got rid of it...maybe my first marriage. That was enough to make me think I could handle anything.
Anyway, on one flight, my boss, a PhD psychologist, tried to talk me out of it in a clinical way. He told me just to shut my eyes, and imagine myself riding horses with him on his little patch of land, which we had done a few days earlier.
After a minute of this, I burst out, "Shut up, Richard! We're in a metal coffin in the air and we're all gonna die!"
Said it rather loudly, so I wasn't too popular for the remainder of that flight. Kind of miffed my boss too.
He gave up, and I white-knuckled it to the destination.
Even I laugh at the story now, as I doze off while the plane's taking off, landing, or at any part of the flight.
The point is, that when we believe something, believe it to our very core, just throwing some words at us isn't going to make us change our minds.
Richard even tried to quote statistics about the safety of flying. I had heard them all. They didn't do anything to ease my irrational fear of flying.
I guess that's also the point.
If we believe, often even the facts won't be enough to change our fear of failure or expectation of defeat.
We don't want to let go of belief, even when we know we are wrong.
Still, the plane did land safely, and you and I have done a lot of things we thought we couldn't. Guess that's the real story here.
Labels: donovan baldwin, failure, fear of failure, fear of flying, life lesson
