Mistakes Happen: Learn from Them

One of the things I’ve learned in life is that we learn from our experience and the mistakes we have made. This valuable knowledge does not always have to come from personal experience but can also be drawn from the experience of others. There is no way to completely avoid making mistakes, and you can still make mistakes learning from the mistakes from others. We see things differently and therefore we learn things differently but eventually you find what works for you.

Early on in my race “career” I was entered into a team event called Extreme Nation and was offered a sponsored position. Upon researching the event, the night before, I found out I would be expected to climb a rope. I had no experience, I had no rope. That night I watched a bunch of different videos on YouTube of methods to climb a rope (S hook, J Hook, all arms etc) Watching the videos, I visualized the techniques, and saved them to memory. In this situation, the experience of others had to become my experience. I was unsuccessful on many of my early attempts, but I watched what the girls who were making it to the top were doing. Eventually, I was able to successfully climb the rope. This is a memory I often look back on to remember just how far I’ve come.

So often in this sport we are faced with obstacles we haven’t seen before. Rather than throw in the towel or blame your training, take a moment to look around and adapt the technique of others.

Bruce Lee once stated, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”

-Ashley