It's Good Training

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."

Epictetus


Maxims are important. It is advisable to have a supply of them at hand when times get tough. When we enter the stress response, when our adrenaline starts pumping and our heart starts beating our higher cognitive functions are shoved aside by our lower instincts. At these times maxims are a workaround back to rationality. They're a cheat code.

I find that the maxim which rises through my mental muck the most often is "This is good training."

I don't know exactly where I picked it up. I know that Epictetus advises us to repeat "It is for this that I trained" when we encounter tragedy, so it's probably related to that. Also, when I was in the military and somebody did something stupid all the NCO's would mumble "it's good training." More sweat on the training field means less blood on the battlefield, as they say. Make your mistakes when the stakes are low and you won't make the same mistakes when the stakes are high.

Hmm... so I guess I DO know where that comes from. Strange how writing a thing down can clarify it.

Anyway, I save "It is for this that I trained" for the big tragedies and "This is good training" for everyday annoyances.

Suppose, for example, that somebody asks something unreasonable of me. Suppose that I'm neck deep in a project and they want me to drop it all for a low priority task. I could swallow my rage and do it or I could blow up at them and call them selfish or I can repeat "it's good training," center my mind and work on a new skill.

"I understand, but this is my priority. I can talk to you about your thing later. I have to get back to this."

It's measured. Who can argue with it? It's not even mean. I'm just letting a fellow creature know what I'm thinking.

So what about when I lose my cool and do something stupid? Well, that's life.

If I want to improve, I must be content to be thought foolish and stupid. It's part of the game. I will make mistakes and people will see me make them. Some of those people will think that I am foolish and stupid. It WILL happen, so I will prepare for it. It's good training.

Nobody shows up to a golf course on Day 1 and smacks 300 yard drives time after time. They bounce balls off of trees, hit them straight up, plough divots everywhere... failure is part of the deal. If we can internalize this idea then failure will have less power over us. We will use it rather than subjugate ourselves to it. We will learn and move on.

It's good training.