It was Eric
Hoffer who said that in times of drastic change learners inherit the earth,
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world
that no longer exists. The growth mindset seems to be the greatest asset humans
can cultivate in order to thrive not despite but because of change and
challenge.
But then an
intriguing question arises: from whom can you learn best?
Seek those
who are or have been down in the arena (in the famous words of T. Roosevelt*).
Only they may offer a decent piece of opinion, feedback of advice. Anybody else
is simply a spectator, pondering and contemplating from the illusory safety and
coziness of their comfort zone.
Learn from
people, famous or not, who are practicing learning out loud. Who have turned
practice into a game of showing up and deliberately giving 100% of themselves,
every time. Who seek growth, focus on
progress and not on immediate results.
It helps to
realize, though, that there isn’t a shortcut to growth, neither is there a
growth hack.
To grow is
to give yourself the space and the opportunity to see things from a different
perspective. In a sense, perspective is everything. A different look at things offers naturally a
new direction, leading to new encounters and outcomes. It’s a starting point
and a turning point at the same time.
To grow is
to dare. Dare making new different choices, owning up to the consequences, not
apologizing for your successes and never, ever, seeking an alibi for failure.
Growth relies heavily owning your story and asking yourself regularly: ‘what
does my work add to what’s out there already?’
Character,
values, mental strength and creativity is developed in the process of figuring
out how to add value, how to add anything to what’s already out there. That’s
probably the best chance for anyone to create something with a significant
impact on their community, country and the world.
Learn from
those who know how to take risks. Risks are fascinating phenomena. They are
pretty much the only valid measure of human character. Those, who are willing
to take risks, trust their own ability of figuring things out in any situation.
They also often end up having more, enjoying more, making more of life or
simply thriving wholeheartedly. Those, who are not, desperately clutch to
whatever they’ve built up, protecting the illusory fortress of the present from
the invasive, drastic and challenging future.
Learners
and risk-takers are also people who live intentionally. They are constantly
finding new ways to navigate uncertainty and create opportunity with an equal
amount of excitement and flair. They live life and craft reality in a
particularly elegant way, without being trapped in the illusion that comfort by
definition equals happiness and fulfillment.
The only
possible way of breaking the vicious circle that marks the edges of your
comfort zone is by starting to take unsafe decisions. Unsafe decisions cause
you to think and respond to situations in new ways, in ways you didn’t think
were possible. Often, as Paul Arden puts it, what seems to be the wrong way to
think, is actually the right way to win. Whatever you think, try thinking the
opposite and see if more opportunities will present themselves to you.
The
willingness to take risks and make unsafe decisions help you balance between a
mature look at life and a healthy childlike curiosity of a beginner’s mindset.
It’s a strategy of expanding your sense of what’s possible and the feeling that you can actually achieve it.
This makes
me think of Iceland. Their soccer team has brought a great deal of surprise and
inspiration to the European Championship this year but it is their mindset and
attitude towards the game that is most fascinating. They play in a disciplined
way as a team, do not waste energy in unnecessary discussions with the referee,
and focus on the game, modestly and persistently. They know they’ve got a lot
to learn but they love the challenge.
It seems
that the game has become the goal, and they visibly enjoy every minute of it.
The actual goals seem to be a by-product of how they function together as a
team.
The
Icelandic journalist Sigrun Davidsdottir sums it up as follows: “Icelandic
mindset: “don’t know how to do anything yet, can do everything, (kunnum ekkert,
getum allt) – it sounds much better in Icelandic!”
Life is
your playground. Are you playing?
* Here’s
the quote by Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man
who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could
have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows
great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at
the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor
defeat.”
©REBELLICCA, 2016
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About | Philosophy | Wisdom
About | Philosophy | Wisdom