Learning is Pain, Part 2

Wes Kriesel
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

So, part 1 of “Learning is Pain” was, looking back, a bit abstract and de-personalized. Let me contextualize “Learning is Pain” in part 2.

Recently, my wife and I started creating a vlog series on our journey as an interracial couple. We’ve been together 10 years and this came up as a way to explore our relationship and celebrate this summer, the summer of our 10th wedding anniversary.

After the pilot episode, we went out to film episode 2 early last week so we could edit and produce the vlog to release it last night, and

…though we got all the footage we needed, it was all wrong.

The tech set up took too long.

The camera angle was wrong.

The tone was wrong.

Photo by Lucas Gallone on Unsplash

Read more here on how Darlene saved the day.

We filmed, for the second time, the conversation on Saturday. I spent Sunday editing and consulting Darlene as we had to condense 25 minutes to (hopefully) 12 minutes. Our real goal is 8 minutes, but we haven’t made it yet.

There is pain in the realization that we have to do it all over. Time wasted can be frustrating, however, I don’t have to look at our first attempt as wasted time, but as a passage along the journey to success.

What I learned in the 21st Century Learning department this year is that exposure to low-stakes failure over time, innoculates you and your team, producing a resilience that you can’t explain in the face of high stakes demands. We did a weekly live show, using Wirecast and Facebook Live this year — with routine failures and lessons along the way — and that’s the way we executed the #truth2power live-streamed student conversation so well.

In our vlog, I know that the mistakes we make along the way — and there are plenty, even some we can’t see yet, like the formatting of the segments can be improved, or the length is wrong — are producing a strength that we can draw upon and will draw upon later in this project. Past this project — I can already feel our relationship deepening. Last night, we took a walk and debriefed the vlog journey at the end of its second week. It’s very rewarding to walk this path — real and metaphorica — with my spouse, engaging in learning and meaningful work together. That’s one of the true tests of a relationship, of a friendship:

Can you stand the pain of learning together?

The only way to build that muscle is to exercise it.

How will you learn together with your closest relationships today?

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

Troops and Tribes

Improve the Future

Wes Kriesel

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Innovating in Fullerton & beyond. Photographer. Runner & fundraiser for clean water with Team World Vision.

Troops and Tribes

Improve the Future

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