Challenge: Solve the Rubik’s cube in 30 seconds. Week 1 update.

So, the inevitable happened!

I stuffed it up! I made a mistake! The first emotion to hit me was frustration, the voice of the saboteur smugly scoffs “told you so! I told you you would stuff it up!” Thanks, but that’s really not helpful. Then came relief. Yes, relief. I knew I had to make a miss turn somewhere, some error such as I should have turned the cube down inverted, but I went down instead, or something. I can’t fix what I did wrong, me trying to fix it made it worse. Now I am forced to start over and I am relieved.

Obstacles, setbacks, problems and other such misgivings will occur no matter what you set out to achieve. It’s how one handhelds these barriers that make or break achievement of our goal.

In perspective, this isn’t all that bad, I can easily enough get to the same point again. And the extra practice will be well needed to achieve my goal of getting under the 30 second mark. So I set out again, from the start.

And guess what?

It happens again…….and again………..and again……..and again…oh man, what the hell! Yes, I stuff up repeatedly! Am I not paying attention to the moves properly? Am I rushing it? Is my mind fried and is screaming out for a break? All of these can be true, but, what I am finding is that, although I am making mistakes, I am learning more and more about how these patters go, how they work, and am even starting to intuitively move the first pieces in their corresponding positions by memory.

This is actually progress, disguised as a failing, the more mistakes I make, the more I know what not to do.

We have all heard this advice before, wise words encouraging us to keep moving forward, (just check out any Rocky movie) we have all taken it on board for somethings, for we have all achieved something, or excelled at one area of expertise or another. Similarly, we have all ignored this advice, we have all given up on something that gets too hard, too many obstacles, too many other things to do, and lay our once important goals on the sidelines of life, later to be reflected upon as we tell our selfs, I tried that, but I was no good, or I got too busy, or, I didn’t have the money, he/she just wasn’t the right person for me, or any other poor excuse we conjure up to pacify ourselves into thinking that giving up was a valid option.

Failure is okay, giving up is not. As Bill Gates so eloquently states “ It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

So, I may feel like I am a little behind in my goal for this week, however, I know that lessons from these errors will be valuable to me latter on.

On wards and upwards!