Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Stubbornness

If you have a fear of dealing with failure, give slacklining a try. It is the unholy embodiment of failure disguising itself as some sort of "sport". See this photo? You'll  never look this cool since you'll be too busy crying face-first in the dirt.


Do you remember your first baby steps? No? Well, your little baby brain was wondering how come everyone else was moving around the world so much quicker than you and you were like man, they do this thing with their legs ALL the time. What's up with that? I have legs, why aren't I doing this walking thing? Then you stood up, your mother gasped, and then the invisible hand of gravity pushed you, and next you were chewing on carpet. Then you gave up and never tried walking again. 

Only you didn't give up. Think about what that means. As a baby in your most primitive and basic form of existence, you attempting something you've never attempted before and never gave up. You succeeded. Look at you know, all walking about. How many things as an adult have you never attempted, that only if you were just stubborn enough to try more than once, you'd succeed? I ask myself that a lot. And as a result I try a lot of things I've never done before.

Slacklining is reliving the failure those first steps. Your first attempt at even standing is met with immediate failure. And the second.... failure. Again and again, falling, failure. Little bit further. Failure. Balance. Fling your arms. Don't fling your arms. Three steps. No steps. Repeated utter failure. Determination is just a sugarcoated word for stubbornness. There's things that you may want to do or haven't done before, and you just have to be stubborn enough to pull it off. You just need to do it over and over and over until it clicks. 

I spent the better part of half an hour today failing to stand on the beginning of a slackline. I spent the next hour going no more than 3 steps. 2 hours in, I was sweating, my feet hurt, I had tunnel vision, and I was angry. Then I crossed the complete 20 feet and was shocked. I had learned how to walk. 


Christopher Robert Brasington. Powered by Blogger.