There comes a time in every person’s life where you have to make a decision. To be bold. To be courageous. To be fearless.
At STEM MINDS, we have decided to adopt #fearlesslearning as our motto; as way to inspire ourselves and others to try new things, test new ideas, embrace mistakes, and explore the world of STEM without hesitation.
This month, we want to take a deep dive into what #fearlesslearning means to us. Keep reading to learn more and see how you can join the #fearlesslearning movement!
- Mistakes=Learning
The inspiration behind our #fearlesslearning movement. We are firm believers that there is no such thing as failure, there are just learning experiences. Too often, we can be discouraged when things don’t work the way we want them to. We can start to see mistakes as personal failings, reflective of our own perceived deficiencies, insecurities, and flaws.
This is the biggest misstep we see kids and adults alike make.
Every single person in this world, beginners and experts and everyone in between, make mistakes. It is human. We can get down on ourselves when mistakes happen, or we can embrace them as inevitable parts of a learning journey. More than that, we can grow to love mistakes, to appreciate them, and to see their value. Mistakes always have something to teach us or a new and exciting direction to lead us in. We need only listen.
To embrace #fearlesslearning is to embrace mistakes as inevitable, useful, and even sometimes fun! They can be frustrating, no doubt, but to fight them is to fight a losing battle. Embrace them to not only make the journey smoother, but also more fruitful. You often learn more from your mistakes than you do your successes.
- Embrace the Newbie Mindset
We have all had a time in our lives when we looked at someone doing something and thought, “They make it look so easy.” But in just this one glimpse into the task at hand, we do not see the long road that it took to get there. We have not seen the hours of practice, the many mistakes, the incremental growth. We only see the final product and can therefore be easily misled into believing this all happened overnight.
We’ve got news for you; it never happens overnight.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is always the very beginning. Expert hockey players were once little kids holding their parent’s hands on the ice. World renowned actors were once little kids forgetting their lines and crying on stage during the holiday play. The most revered musicians were once learning their scales and stumbling over the notes.
It can be easy when you are just starting out to compare yourself to people who have been doing it for a long time, or even people who just seem to pick up on it a little faster and get down on yourself. We have two words for you: STOP IT! Everyone moves at their own pace; what comes easily to one might be a real struggle for another. But more than that, the newbie mindset is a place of such incredible insight! You look at it from a whole different perspective and that can bring such a wonderful set of fresh new eyes to a topic. There’s a reason there is something called “Expert Blindness!” Sometimes being too well-versed in something means you actually start to get tunnel vision and can’t see ideas and strategies the way you should.
So rather than get down on yourself, embrace the journey. One day you will look back fondly on it and even be able to help out someone who is just starting out, the way you once did.
- Just Play!
One of the biggest excuses that we hear for not wanting to try something new is that you “don’t know what you’re doing”. You know it’s not going to be perfect, maybe it won’t even be good, and that is scary! But here’s the thing; you don’t need to be an expert. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just play.
Rather than get bogged down in the details and technicalities, embrace your inner child and just play! Not everything has to be super serious, especially if you don’t want it to be! If you take the approach of play, not only are you going to gain the skills you were looking for along the way, but it will be way more fun! Take the stress off and enjoy the ride, because life is too short not to play.
We hope you have enjoyed our insights into #fearlesslearning and have been emboldened to shake off doubt and hesitation as we embark together as a collective to change the world for good. We invite you to join us on Twitter and Facebook as we launch our #fearlesslearning movement and share our journey.
Feeling inspired and want to learn more? Click here to get your free digital download of our activities sheet that includes 5 ideas for how to continue the #fearlesslearning at home. Any thoughts or comments? Let us know in the comments below