Our Inner Battle

Each summer, I always share the same talk with the boys. Since they seem willing to forgive this redundancy, I will repeat it for you as well.  The talk is about embracing challenges. 

Camp is full of challenges. They are safe challenges, but they often require that a camper overcome a worry (dislike of failure) or a real fear (like heights). With this in mind, I offer the campers the following view of human nature.

In cartoons, the lead character is often shown with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.  The angel and the devil both dispense opposite advice to the main character.  I think this cartoon has it wrong.

We do not have an angel and a devil on our shoulders; instead, we have a Warrior and a Worrier.  The Warrior faces adversity, tries new things and accepts challenges.  The Worrier is rapt in fear and finds reasons to avoid new things or challenging situations.  The Warrior says “I want to learn to snow ski.  I want to try out for the play.  I want to meet those new people.”  The Worrier answers back “Skiing is too cold.  Theater is stupid.  Why do I need new friends?”  Note that the Worrier is clever - rather than say “I am scared”, it instead finds excuses not to try. Without trying, there is no chance of failure - and therefore no chance to learn about dealing with failure.

The Warrior looks at the world and sees opportunity.  The Worrier looks at the same things and sees limitation and fear.

For parents and youth development professionals, we should look for ways to feed the Warrior and starve the Worrier.  Let me be clear, I still believe that we should focus on Reasonable Risks (one of our “4 Rs”), not dangerous ones.  In my examples, I am discussing challenges that are difficult and out of our comfort zone, but safely attainable. 

This week, each camper will have some Warrior/Worrier moments.  It is my hope that we create an environment sufficiently supportive and loving to encourage each camper to listen to the Warrior!

I want our campers to have moments where they try things even if they are unsure of success. I want them know that the key to triumph is “try”, even if it means not winning or accomplishing every goal. Indeed, I want moments where campers will fail, because it provides them the opportunity to learn that with hard work and dedication, failure leads to success in many cases.

I love Thomas Edison’s response when asked abut his many “failures” in developing the light bulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

I hope all our campers develop this belief.  It will set them up for one heck of a life!

Steve Sir

_Want more like this? See: http://blog.campchampions.com/at-camp-failure-leads-to-success _