Bonus - Have fun

The sky was clear and the view was just breathtaking.

You know It won't be fun all the time. Sometimes you only realize that you had fun when you finished something, the process might not feel fun at the time. 

However I think one must try to find and do things that are fun to us. 

You also shouldn't try to follow an ideal of what you should be doing or liking, like enjoying jazz music instead of commercial pop music because you are all grown up now, or reading more classical novels and ditching the chick lit that you really like just because other people do it. 

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to do different things, but if you don't have fun or enjoy it while your doing it, probably you shouldn't be doing it.

Other people might not get it, but you shouldn't worry to much about it. The important is that you enjoy it.

Currently I'm in the process of relearning about things that I like and are fun to me. Some of them I already know and appreciate, but, again, as time went by I stopped doing, stopped experimenting and learning to a degree that now I really miss.

Well, let's kick this blog into action and start having fun.

Bonus - Fail

One of my failed photo attempts for the Do post.

I think that in the tech world failure is currently a trend. Companies and people want to know fast if they are onto something, or if they are on the wrong path, and then decide to pivot or just start over and try something else.

But outside the tech world failure is still not an option and is seen with suspicion  and as something bad. If you fail the reason is probably that you are not good enough and you are not up for the job. As a consequence people avoid taking chances and stay on the safe path, they won't learn, they won't grow, but also they won't be criticized. They maintain a strange form of lethargy, keep your head low and don't make waves.

As for me, I think that failure is a good thing, you learn one more way on how not to do something, you learn that you should try something else.

But this is what I think, in reality, I don't like failing. I don't try much, I don't do much, I don't fail much but... I also don't learn much. I'm also afraid of being criticized and I don't put myself in situations where I will probably fail... situations where I can also succeed.

This is one of the reasons why this blog is written in English (not my native language), because it's certain that I will fail and make mistakes. The other reason being that it forces me to think and write in a different way making me leave my comfort zone and not be in auto-pilot.

If I don't put myself out there for failure, I'm also not taking chances on succeeding.

Learn

National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

I really loved to learn, specially when I was younger. I would go through a encyclopaedia reading article by article. I would see something on the TV and would try to replicate it by my own, like the time when tried several times to make a kite after seeing some cartoons. I tried some materials like plastic, paper, wood or cane, several construction techniques like using strings or glue, and different shapes for the kite. In the end I arrived to a combination that was actually functional and fun and I was very pleased. I had conquered the air by myself.

When we grow we tend to forget this learning model, to try, to experiment, to fail and eventually succeed, because failure is usually not an option. We want to arrive to the solution fast, cut all corners and take every imaginable shortcut available, and the process is lost, because we tend to see it as a waste of time. I tend to be more satisfied when I learn by myself by doing, experimenting and failing, and I have the impression that the knowledge lingers more deeply in my head.

I feel a bit stagnant in learning and in my personal growth, I read a lot, but it's not enough, because I read and, despite of my interest on the subject, most of the times I also forget.

My hope is to use this blog as an excuse and motivation to start, to do, learn and grow.

Do

This is the second post and by now you may have spotted a pattern and already guessed the title of the third post.

During my childhood I would start and do things, anything as long as I wanted to do it, I would do it. I would build it, fail sometimes, tweak a bit here and there and learn from the process. And yes, I would have fun, lots of fun and the time just would fly by.

As I grew up, I became more and more passive towards everything. Example, I used to draw and liked it (does not mean that I'm good at it), but by the time I reached University I didn't do it at all.

And now? Now most of my time, even at work, is passed consuming media in a very mindless way. I'm constantly refreshing and going to my bookmarks to see what else is new and time also flies by, but I have no recollection of most it.

I made a few weak tries to change this, but it usually involves buying some gear to do whatever is my new goal, I don't do it and then everything just is tucked away in my shame box.

By now I was ready to write some kind of manifesto of what this blog is going to be, but I still don't know. I will write, try to start and do more things.

And for now, it's all I got.

Start.*

Just start!

The idea has been lingering in my mind for sometime now, I wanted to start something. Something that would make me start more things, do more, learn, probably fail and have fun while doing it.

So this blog came to life. Still don't know exactly what it's going to be really about, but I'll figure things out along the way.

This first post thing is always awkward, so let's get this thing out of the way and just start.

(*) Convenient title for the post and the blog.