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Why You Need To Fail


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This is a really thought-provoking talk on the value of being open, trying different things, treating failures and mistakes as an essential part of the process of becoming excellent at anything.

 

It speaks to everyone, but it might be particularly useful to us who are going through a long, messy, unattractive life experience that doesn’t look particularly successful.

 

It overlaps with the “You’re never too old to fulfill your Mission” topic in that Sivers underscores that there is often a very long, messy, unattractive process that precedes the great achievements that we see in others. We see only the end product, and that’s very misleading.

 

This journey we're on is so unwanted and painful, but we all know it contains gems of learning, insight, maturation, awakening, emboldening. This TED talk made me feel even more intrigued by what I might be getting out of this illness, that is not apparent yet, but is being forged by the very process of my putting one foot in front of the other, taking care of myself well, and studying what’s happening to me.

 

 

 

 

[Warning for Alex – it includes the spurious Michael Jordan commercial, but otherwise it’s great! :) ]

1996-97 - Paxil x 9 months, tapered, suffered 8 months withdrawal but didn't know it was withdrawal, so...

1998-2001 - Zoloft, tapered, again unwittingly went into withdrawal, so...

2002-03 - Paxil x 20 months, developed severe headaches, so...

Sep 03 - May 05 - Paxil taper took 20 months, severe physical, moderate psychological symptoms

Sep 03 - Jun 05 - took Prozac to help with Paxil taper - not recommended

Jul 05 to date - post-taper, severe psychological, moderate physical symptoms, improving very slowly

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This is kind of the opposite of synchronicity and flow. Here we’re talking about the times when things are clunky and awkward. It may be that the dialectic between the two states is optimal for us. Each state leads to a different kind of evolution. Synchronization leads to creativity. Desynchronization leads to creativity (necessity is the mother of invention).

 

It's hard to care about it when you feel like crap, but on days when you feel slightly better, you can sometimes get a glimmer that there just might be some value to all the different states or to the tension between the states.

 

You know -- To everything there is a season? Yin and yang? How there is both collaboration and competition in nature.

 

Apparently, there's some reason for illness, and not just health. Blech. That's a hard one to swallow. I'm still working on this one! :blink: Too much of a hedonist, I guess! :D

1996-97 - Paxil x 9 months, tapered, suffered 8 months withdrawal but didn't know it was withdrawal, so...

1998-2001 - Zoloft, tapered, again unwittingly went into withdrawal, so...

2002-03 - Paxil x 20 months, developed severe headaches, so...

Sep 03 - May 05 - Paxil taper took 20 months, severe physical, moderate psychological symptoms

Sep 03 - Jun 05 - took Prozac to help with Paxil taper - not recommended

Jul 05 to date - post-taper, severe psychological, moderate physical symptoms, improving very slowly

Link to comment

It overlaps with the “You’re never too old to fulfill your Mission” topic in that Sivers underscores that there is often a very long, messy, unattractive process that precedes the great achievements that we see in others. We see only the end product, and that’s very misleading.

So true. It also coincides with the "10 000 hours" theory, which proposes that on average we need 10 000 hours to achieve expertise in a given field.

2000-2008 Paxil for a situational depression

2008 - Paxil c/t

Severe protracted WD syndrome ever since; improving

 

 

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once”

Albert Einstein

 

"Add signature to your profile. This way we can help you even better!"

Surviving Antidepressants ;)

 

And, above all, ... keep walking. Just keep walking.

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Good point, NP. NP is referring to another idea Malcolm Gladwell popularized in his book "Outliers." This is from Wiki --

 

A common theme that appears throughout Outliers is the "10,000-Hour Rule", based on a study by Anders Ericsson. Gladwell claims that greatness requires enormous time, using the source of The Beatles' musical talents and Gates' computer savvy as examples.[3] The Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, therefore meeting the 10,000-Hour Rule. Gladwell asserts that all of the time The Beatles spent performing shaped their talent, "so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, 'they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.'"[3] Gates met the 10,000-Hour Rule when he gained access to a high school computer in 1968 at the age of 13, and spent 10,000 hours programming on it.[3]

 

In Outliers, Gladwell interviews Gates, who says that unique access to a computer at a time when they were not commonplace helped him succeed. Without that access, Gladwell states that Gates would still be "a highly intelligent, driven, charming person and a successful professional", but that he might not be worth US$50 billion.[3] Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years. He also notes that he himself took exactly 10 years to meet the 10,000-Hour Rule, during his brief tenure at The American Spectator and his more recent job at The Washington Post.[2]

1996-97 - Paxil x 9 months, tapered, suffered 8 months withdrawal but didn't know it was withdrawal, so...

1998-2001 - Zoloft, tapered, again unwittingly went into withdrawal, so...

2002-03 - Paxil x 20 months, developed severe headaches, so...

Sep 03 - May 05 - Paxil taper took 20 months, severe physical, moderate psychological symptoms

Sep 03 - Jun 05 - took Prozac to help with Paxil taper - not recommended

Jul 05 to date - post-taper, severe psychological, moderate physical symptoms, improving very slowly

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