Mistakes, Stupidity and just plain Craziness…
We’ve all have come to this stage of life before, one time or another we’ve done it.
Some of us won’t admit it because it’s just plain embarrassing, but I believe truly that one needs to make mistakes to learn. Without mistakes, there can be no room for improvement and frankly we’re not perfect beings.
If I had to choose a middle name, “Mistake” will be it because I’ve made alot of mistakes in my life and in my nutrition and lifting program to gather my experience that what makes me what I am today.
I believe truly also that there is no such thing as a mistake, but the best decision that you made with the available options prior to your experience and ignorance of a subject that you have not thought about.
However don’t let that be an excuse but a stepping stone to understanding a subject.
What is a Mistake?
Mistakes are just that Mistakes, so don’t have to over think it or beat yourself over it. Before I start addressing my views on mistakes, I’ll like to throw out a great step by step guide to correcting mistakes -
- Admit that you’ve made a mistake.
- Learn from your mistake.
- Don’t do the same mistake again.
Alot of us fear mistakes because we don’t wish to be wrong and thats a wrong way of thinking. It only shows that we’re a lesser of a person who do not want to be humbled to learn something new, something that we’ve never thought about. We are only humans and have finite resources to understand and learn things.
It is a shame that people will not admit mistakes because it only shows that they don’t wish to learn more, and to stop learning would be a demise of one’s intellect, thought process and even integrity to their profession. No body can truly say they know enough however one can also know too much for their own good but I digress.
In all honesty, nobody can say they can stop learning if they bothered to upgrade their knowledge and seek knowledge.
However this is different from plain stupidity, making a mistake doesn’t mean that you’re stupid it just mean it was a best decision that you’ve made with your current level of intelligence and understanding; do no confuse the two.
Sometimes ignorance becomes bigotry and being stubborn is somewhat like a side effect of it. I believe too that some people are just plain stupid, and I will not lie about it or try to be polite. There are many people who are just plain stupid because they ignore common sense even when there are tell tale signs to stop it.
What does stupidity means to me?
Well its simple… If you completely ignore common sense even with obvious hints and advice against it, then you’re stupid enough not to act against it.
If you know you could get injured, hurt or even kill yourself yet do it because you thought it was cool, fun or wasn’t put in a position where you had to choose, then you’re just plain stupid.
Being stupid sometimes can be fun, but it ain’t fun when you have to pay for the consequence dearly.
If I could quote an urban phase, it’ll be ” it’s all fun and games till someone loses an eye.” Again, I digress but seriously it happens and still is happening.
What is just plain craziness or insanity?
The last degree of stupidity to an extreme level is just plain craziness.
Einstein made a very interesting quote, ” Insanity: Doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.”
This level of ignorance and stubbornness that is a forced mistake and stupidity combined; Completely devoid of intelligence and willful intent to ignore common sense and obvious hint.
So how does it relate to lifting, nutrition and all that jazz?
- You made a mistake to eat that cream puff thinking you can afford it when you’re dieting, big deal.. move on and deal with it by not doing it again.
- You are stupid when you make that same mistakes every other day and don’t see results of your dieting after 8 weeks and ask yourself why?
- You are just plain crazy thinking that its because you’re just having too much carbs.
Mistakes are a dime a dozen, it happens everyday but we learn from it.
- You made a mistakes by training too much this week, resulting you to be over reaching and fallen sick from the episode.
- You are stupid to continue training even when obvious signs such as a flu and a running nose is telling you stop.
- You’re just plain crazy to go all out and get injured from forcing yourself to train.
Stupidity is devoid of common sense, maybe common sense is not so common for some.
- You made a mistake by estimating your body fat level visually, you correct it by having someone else more experience do a body fat caliper measurement on you.
- You are stupid to insist that you’re around 10% when everyone else says you’re 15%.
- You’re just plain crazy to believe everyone is wrong and you’re correct.
Plain craziness happens, and sometimes people just need to get a smack of reality to realize that.
You see I could go on and on but you get my drift, so make a mistake and continue to make one but learn from your mistakes.
Don’t beat yourself over it because It isn’t worth the time to cry over spilled milk, simply think to yourself…how did I spill that milk and what can I do not to spill it again?
However the most crucial take home message here is that, don’t be stupid and lastly don’t be crazy, simple isn’t it?
