learning a lesson from walking to work.
Posted by nathan on 23 May 2007 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on life.
I have been walking to and from work every day for a little more than a week now. It certainly changes things.
1. I have more energy first thing when i walk through the door.
2. I no longer can make quick trips home to pick up what i forget.
3. I bring a briefcase to work every day. I didn’t the first day, and wished I had. It was a pain to carry lunch, coffee and other things along.
4. Yesterday I missed an appointment–I have to pay more attention to my PDA’s appointments, because i can no longer run out the door, jump in my car and head off to an appointment.
Really, what I’m getting at, is the importance of learning from my mistakes and making the corrections needed to make sure the mistakes don’t happen every day.
I got to thinking about that–What if I no longer learned from my mistakes? What if i made the same stupid mistakes over and over again?
It seems the more corrections I make, a new, smaller mistake comes up. But i keep on fixing the smaller ones, and they generally keep getting smaller.
Do you make a special effort to learn from your mistakes? Do you make strategic corrections to what isn’t working so you don’t keep messing up in the same way?
3 Comments »
on 23 May 2007 at 2:23 pm 1.
Tara Lilly said …
I have been considering walking with my boys-ages 6 and 3, to the older one’s baseball and soccer practices and games (where there are sidewalks) to help save on gas. The problem I have found is that, while I know my time management skills suck, they seem to have gotten worse with more commitments. These things I mentioned are mere blocks from our house, but since I procrastinate terribly and only leave the time necessary to drive there, I am finding that preparing to leave with enough time to walk is this huge sacrifice for me. It’s stupid! The more things I have to do, the more organized I should be, but it’s not working that way. I don’t get it. That’s a little off the topic of your questions in this blog but I’m open to feedback on this.
on 23 May 2007 at 3:38 pm 2.
joe said …
You know, ever since I started walking and riding my bike everywhere, I have gained an entirely new perspective on time. I have learned to prioritize my appointments, and have even learned that some things aren’t as important as I thought they were. It has taken a while, but I have learned to let go of some of those non-essential things. I am happier and significantly less stressed out.
But, you are right, I had to learn from my mistakes, and, frankly, I’m still learning, but the mistakes are much smaller now.
on 23 May 2007 at 5:24 pm 3.
Todd Helmkamp said …
You know, Nate, your comment about small mistakes getting smaller as you correct them made me think of an important truth.
“There are no great deeds, only small ones done with great love.”
I think Mother Teresa said that.