Make Mistakes and Stop Micromanaging Yourself

As human beings we judge ourselves harsher then we judge anyone else.  We try comparing ourselves to others and we always seem to fall short. Of course when we do this we will always fall short!  We don't see that those people are making their own mistakes and having their own difficulties in life that have brought them to where they are.

As in Rock Climbing and Life we must look UP to our goals and never
look down.  Or we face the risk of losing our balance
and forgetting where we wish to go.  

Life is like rock climbing.  (I have never been in my life because I am terrified of heights but this seems to be a good analogy at least of what I've seen. So please forgive me for any mistakes I've made.)  Say there is a huge mountain you decide to start climbing, you have all your gear and your ropes and the weather seems perfect to begin the ascent.  You get farther and farther along at almost a crawl like pace, taking the time to set the spikes into the rock that help keep you from falling.  Just as you see a little ledge above you where you can sit and take a break, the wind begins to pick up and it throws you down the mountain a good distance.  You swing back and forth on your rope and eventually reach out and grab the wall again.  Without pausing you start climbing again, knowing there is no other way. That wind keeps tearing through you trying to knock you down but you keep closer to the wall and climb even slower than before.  Only those spikes in the rock you placed as you climbed saved you from a certain death of falling to the bottom of the mountain.  Also, only knowing there was a ledge for a little respite just ahead kept you inching your way upward.  The climb is harder than the first time every so often the wind ices through you and you slide just a tiny bit down the rock wall.  Gradually and steadily you make your way to that goal of that tiny ledge to get the rest you so desperately.  Finally after a long time of struggling you reach that ledge and sit down grateful in having made it this far.

Now lets mention two different things about this little analogy of mine I created.  One, without those spikes driven into the wall as the climber moved toward the top they would have surely have fallen when that wind picked up.  We place our own spikes in the wall towards our own goals and dreams and in striving to become closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.  These little spikes such as daily scripture reading, attending church every Sunday, daily personal prayers and going to the temple as often as we can.  These may seem basic and common but these "spikes" when driven into the rack face of our climb toward the Lord can save us when we slip and fall or are blown of course.  Two, that little rock ledge was our first goal in mind.  Without having goals and dreams in our life we would never advance and even have the desire to be better.  We CANNOT give up on our goals just because some wind comes around and tries to blow us off our course.  If we are patient and keep "driving our spikes" into the rock we can eventually reach our goals no matter how large or how small they may be.

On Sunday we talked about making mistakes, and actually letting ourselves make those mistakes because they will help us grow and learn from those experiences however harsh they may be.  It reminded me of a lesson I learned in my Horsemanship Class back at BYUI.  One of our "lessons" was when riding our horse in a circle we needed to teach that horse to stay in that circle.  Willy Twitchell, my teacher, told me I was Mircomanaging my horse too much.  Meaning I was trying to keep Chester in the circle at all times.  What I needed to do was every time he stepped out of the circle and made that "mistake" give him the nudge to move him back into it.  Chester needed to make those mistakes to better understand what the correct choice was.

When I remembered this lesson on Sunday I suddenly realized how much it can pertain to our own lives.  How often do we try to stay in the areas we are comfortable in and not try new things because we don't want to make mistakes?  I do it to myself all the time!  I finally realized that I have been mirco-managing MYSELF!  I'm not letting myself make the mistakes to learn which way is actually the right way.  I'm shutting myself in my room and my world of Korean drama and books and not branching out.  I won't ever know where I'm supposed to go in life if I don't try.  I'm trying to control my own life but not taking the risks and becoming the recluse and loner.

I will end with a quote from President Lorenzo Snow really hit home to me at church.  He states:

"My young friends, there is an opportunity for you to become great - just as great as you wish to be.  In starting out in life you may set your hearts upon things very difficult to attain to, but possibly within your reach.  In your first efforts to gratify your desires you may fail, and your continued efforts may not prove what may be termed a success.  But inasmuch as your efforts were honest efforts, and inasmuch as your desires were founded in righteousness, the experience you obtain while pursuing your hearts' desires must necessarily be profitable to you, and even your mistakes, if mistakes you make, will be turned to your advantage." 

This quote made me realize that I have to stop being afraid of making the wrong choice about decisions in my life.  I have to be willing to make mistakes when they come because they will help me grow as a person and someday my goals will be achieved.  I have to have Faith in myself and stop micromanging myself in order to reach the goals and dreams I wish to achieve.   Even if my goals seem so far away and at times when they seem to be in my grasp may suddenly disappear I can't stop because I'm afraid of losing it again.  If I know in my heart that my goals are "honest" and based in "righteousness" then I'm not doing anything wrong.  At times maybe I will have to alter and shift my dreams around depending on different circumstances in life.  Sometimes they will be put on pause for awhile as I figure other things that are more pressing in my life.  Yet, I know the day will come when that goal and dream will be there sitting along beside me.  I'll make it to that rock ledge no matter how hard the wind blows, I must not give up.