Acting Without the Drama

December 27, 2008.  I love Survivorman.  It’s probably one of my favorite shows on television.  There are other survivalist shows, but none quite like this one.  The host, Les Stroud, is insane.  He goes out to remote, dangerous locations and lives off the land for a week.  Deserts, swamps, arctic tundras, desert islands, he does them all.

And occasionally fails.

That’s probably my favorite part of the show.  There has been at least one episode where he decided not to continue to the end of the week.  He knew that if he did, he would be foolishly risking his life even more than he normally does.

I think sometimes we learn more from our screw-ups than we do from our successes.  Success is great, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy succeeding.  I’m just not sure how much I really get out of it.  I think if we’re sharing our success with others, it can be an amazing thing.  Otherwise, mistakes give us a lot more fodder for progress.

Actually, I should probably qualify this.  Mistakes teach us if we are humble enough to recognize the mistakes and accept responsibility for them.  Work toward righting the problems caused by the snafus.

I’m not really suggesting that we try to fail.  I think we just shouldn’t be as afraid of failure as we are.  As I am.  Because I am terrified of failure.  I get paralyzed by it.  And that never really helps.  Not moving is only successful when you are being pursued by very large carnivores with poor olfactory senses.

So, as we move into the new year, I’m seeking to move forward in spite of my fears of failure.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll even learn a thing or two…

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