Daily Drawing 54: If You’re Trying, You’re Winning (What Bears Can Teach Us About Success).
Daily Drawing 54 Title: “Wook What I Caught”. Ink and etching on claybord.
Bears are relentless fishers.
There are so many ways that we could look at bears and how they succeed in the wild, but today I’m going to talk about their Salmon catching practices because it gives us a good glimpse into how we can approach anything in life.
Bears catch between between 15%-35% of the salmon that they fish. 35% is pretty good, but that means that they fail to catch 65% of the fish that they go after. We tend to look at high failure rate and see it as a bad sign, and when we focus on how often we fail it can be demoralizing. I personally have failed SO many times in many areas, and I have almost given up on many important things because I only saw my failure. This is a mistake. Instead lets reframe how we look at failure.
Failure is a sign that you are trying (and trying is still winning).
A bear doesn’t give up just because he misses a few fish (even if it is 6 out of the 10 or more). A bear knows that in order to win and survive they need to keep at it until they catch a fish. Then they need to repeat the process until they catch another fish. By continuing to show up and fish several things happen:
The bear increases their chance to catch a fish. The more attempts they make the more likely they will make a catch (and be able to gain the energy to keep on going).
They build up their skill for catching fish. Each failure teaches them how not to catch a fish. I suspect that despite having the instinct for fishing, they probably aren’t as good as a veteran bear who has had many seasons to practice.
Failing quickly leads to faster learning. The more times the bear tries and fails is the more lessons learned. Interestingly the bear success rate changes depending on whether the bear is standing, sitting, walking, running, in the day or night. These are all variables that the bear tests and learns from in quick succession.
The process of trying is still an act of winning because it means that you decided to show up. Try, fail, learn, then repeat. You only lose at something you care about doing if you throw in the towel.
So go be a bear and catch some fish.
