“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw
A good portion of my conversation with my family is through quotes, which sounds awfully un-creative of us, but it's not like I can guarantee that anything I say has never been said before. Monkeys on typewriter sort of thing. Besides, I really like quotes. A collection of my favorite quotes might tell more about me faster than anything I say, so I am considering rounding up my favorite one-liners one of these days.
So, the real-life application of the quote of the day: I don't know many people who like making mistakes. I am not one of them. But sometimes the fear of making a mistake forcibly limits my progress in what I'm trying to do. As a minor example: since junior high, I have wanted to become fluent in Spanish. I took a Spanish class every year through junior high and high school, took the AP Spanish Language and Spanish Literature tests, and took the necessary classes for a Spanish minor in college. I read my scriptures in Spanish, sometimes I pray in Spanish...but when it comes to speaking Spanish (outside of prayer. I don't think the Lord minds my grammar mistakes, and He knows what I'm trying to say anyway) I freeze up for fear of saying something wrong. I spend time thinking how I would conjugate a verb, or thinking of a particular term, or rationalizing that my audience would probably understand me better if I spoke English. [Actually, that has happened to me. I was a sophomore in college trying to ask, in Spanish, a Hispanic patient about the quality of his pain, and he told me to just speak English and his daughter would translate.]
I recognized my hesitancy in speaking back in high school, and I've tried various things to get past my fear of errors. I went to the Dominican Republic for 6 weeks to teach in Spanish, I took a speaking proficiency test, I practiced speaking to friends.
Unsurprisingly, I'm still scared of making mistakes. Also unsurprisingly, I still make mistakes.
But I'm going somewhere.
So, the real-life application of the quote of the day: I don't know many people who like making mistakes. I am not one of them. But sometimes the fear of making a mistake forcibly limits my progress in what I'm trying to do. As a minor example: since junior high, I have wanted to become fluent in Spanish. I took a Spanish class every year through junior high and high school, took the AP Spanish Language and Spanish Literature tests, and took the necessary classes for a Spanish minor in college. I read my scriptures in Spanish, sometimes I pray in Spanish...but when it comes to speaking Spanish (outside of prayer. I don't think the Lord minds my grammar mistakes, and He knows what I'm trying to say anyway) I freeze up for fear of saying something wrong. I spend time thinking how I would conjugate a verb, or thinking of a particular term, or rationalizing that my audience would probably understand me better if I spoke English. [Actually, that has happened to me. I was a sophomore in college trying to ask, in Spanish, a Hispanic patient about the quality of his pain, and he told me to just speak English and his daughter would translate.]
Unsurprisingly, I'm still scared of making mistakes. Also unsurprisingly, I still make mistakes.
But I'm going somewhere.
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