A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
I used to be a skier. I’m not any longer but I used to be, and I used to love skiing more than anything else in this world. I literally spent every conceivable moment I could at the ski area in my town. If I wasn’t in school, and I wasn’t there, then it wasn’t opened. I skied other places as well and I was never as proud as when I came off the mountain at the end of the day and said I didn’t fall at all. Now the thing is, in one way, that was great. It meant I was skiing safely and not taking chances, which is never a bad thing. But it also meant I wasn’t pushing myself, trying new things, or improving my skiing abilities. Looking back, I could have pushed myself and gotten better without taking crazy out of control chances – but I could have taken chances. Life is like that. We have to take chances in order to get better, or in order to grow. That doesn’t mean we have to take insane crazy chances, or try something new like jumping in a volcano, but we do have to take chances, take some risks and try new things. Making mistakes suck, sure, but they are how we learn. So look around and find something new to try – it may be something as little as taking a new route to work, or something as big as looking for a new career…just try something new and allow yourself to grow.
