Something happened last semester that will probably have a permanent impact on my self-esteem.
It was in cold January that I enrolled in a compulsory course on information security in which we had to split into small groups of three to four members, and develop a security system.
These projects are usually quite demanding, since you have to do a great deal of research on your topic, figure out how to put that theory into practice and create a functioning system, and document every step from the project plan to implementation.
This means that every group member has to play an integral role throughout the project. If one person tries to sneak away and let the others do the work, his name gets crossed out pretty fast. Free rides are never permitted.
Last week’s theme was primarily centered upon the topics of giving up easily and being discouraged by slow results. Today, I’m also going to continue along the same path and talk to you about the mistakes we make and why we should treat them positively.
We’ve all heard the phrase “we learn from our mistakes” many times in our lives. I heard it first when I started learning how to ride a bicycle. I’m sure many people treat it as a mere cliché, but many of us also fail to fully incorporate the philosophy into our lives. We acknowledge it at a certain level, but we still tend to get discouraged by our failures and don’t try to get out of them. The negative emotions caused by our mistakes (especially big ones) too often overcome the rationality of getting something positive out of a failure, so it becomes almost impossible to imagine gaining any merits from a failure. But the reason why the negative emotions triumph is that we haven’t adopted this mindset before the blunders blow in.
Self-Learner is a blog about self-education and self-improvement based lifestyle design. Goal? To become the best "version" of yourself, and feel excited to jump out of your bed every morning.