Patience in Mistakes

Last week I taught a brainteaser class. It was filled with unfamiliar movements made to challenge the brain and body, from funky wrist warm ups to rolling and crawling on the floor to challenging ways to step to the top of the mat.

Over the course of the week I watched many people move through confusion and frustration. But I also got to experience their joy as they put the pieces together and solved the puzzling connection between their brain and their body. There is nothing more rewarding than watching that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment wash over another person.

Making mistakes and having to work through frustration builds character. It teaches us patience as we sit with discomfort. It teaches mental fortitude as we iterate ways to solve the problem. And in the case of unfamiliar movements, it teaches physical endurance as we make multiple attempts, rather than nail it on the first try. When we find perfection immediately, we don’t really learn anything from that, other than simply replicating the one way that works for us. We have to make mistakes in order to discover the richness of multiple paths to the right answer. We have to make mistakes in order to learn.