Comfort and Mistakes

Recently on a cold night here in Taipei, my wife and I were bundled up in our winter coats and scarves when we ran into an acquaintance. This man was dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Incredulous, I had to ask if he was crazy. He said that he wasn't. But that in fact, he has trained his body. The human body, he stated, is designed to self-adjust. Our bodies work to maintain a certain body temperature. So when we are hot, it cools us down, when we are cold, it warms us up.

Now, I'm not sure how much I buy into this. I definitely do believe that our bodies are self-adjusting. How else do you explain sweat? But, at the same time, I like my warm winter clothes and accessories.

The point to the story is that humans have this incredible ability to adapt. And when put into unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations, what I've found is that we as humans tend to default to comfort. So when things are uncomfortable we adjust. We make changes, we learn, we embrace, and eventually we're comfortable again.

In the process of building our dreams, it takes getting uncomfortable. As we challenge ourselves and push ourselves beyond our comfort zones. It's often a struggle. We feel out of place, unbalanced or incapacitated. Given time, we gain new insight and knowledge or learn new skills, and before you know it, we've adjusted.

However, are we willing to risk jumping into an unfamiliar situation knowing that we will be the better for it?

For many of us the answer is no. We don't like the unfamiliar. Unfamiliar is risky. We might make mistakes.

The thing with mistakes, however, is that again we are self-correcting. Mistakes I've found are the building stones for progress and success.

During his process of inventing the light-bulb, Thomas Edison tried hundreds of different things to find something that would glow and give off light. When asked if he felt these experiments were failures, he answered no. These things were not mistakes or failures. Now he knows hundreds of things that won't work.

Same with us. We make mistakes. But we learn what NOT to do. And sometimes these lessons are often even more valuable than the lessons where we learn what to do.

Now, I'm not saying that mistakes are fun, or that mistakes don't hurt sometimes. But, only, that mistakes are some of the best teachers. And as we make our mistakes and grow and learn from them. Only then do we get the knowledge and skills to become hopeless successes.

So pardon my mixed metaphors and get your hands dirty, jump in the cold pool, risk a little. You'll be the better for it.