The economy and ecology of living in a lorry, Part 3
I’ve spoken about some of the practical and
physiological aspects of lorry living in the first two parts of this occasional
sub-series. Today I’m moving up the
triangle of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (check it out at http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html ) towards the notions of self-fufillment and
personal growth.
Maya
Angelou writes
'My
mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some
passion, some compassion, some humour and some style'
I
agree with that but if someone asks me how I am just now I tend to say
‘Surviving’, and I am aware as I say it that it’s less than I would like to
say. Somehow there’s a back against the
wall, stiff upper lip feel to the word, but that is how I feel, and I know I’m
not alone in that feeling. I mentioned
the desperate faces in my last blog about Oswestry on Thursday. I know I’m not the only person who is finding
that life is really hard, and that survival is a battle. They are faced daily
with the bottom level of the triangle, the very basic needs – food, water,
shelter and warmth.
I’m
luckier than many because I have a life that involves creative work, and a way
to make it pay enough to make a living, even if that basic living is often exactly
that. Basic. But if, like me, you can find something that
not only gives you a personal sense of achievement but that also earns you
recognition and respect from others then you are well on the way to discovering
a different meaning and purpose to life that lifts you above the basic. My life as a performer does exactly that for
me. The persona of Mr Alexander is my
on-going link to achieving my full potential.
If
you watch my improvisation between shows, you will see that I tend to repeat
and repeat the same routine. It is more
than just practice, it is being at one with what I do, a series of moments of
achievement that I hope the audience can equate to personally and see as a
metaphor of all types of life skills achievement.
And out
of these moments from time to time emerge observations and statements that I
have used in shows and lessons and passed on to others on the path;
Failure
is on the road to success
Don’t
say ‘I can’t do it’, say ‘I can’t do it yet’
Practice
makes progress
All
three statements are linked. Many
people, instead of being liberated by their learning experiences have been
stifled and mortified by them. Teachers
and schools leave many with a legacy which makes them terrified of failure;
failure for them is something personally and morally reprehensible, and must
never be admitted or sanctioned. It has
been built into the fabric of Western education and will probably always be
there. A ‘failing’ school is almost the
worst statement Ofsted can make after an inspection; a failed exam will leave most
students never wanting anything to do with that subject ever again.
In
our education system failure is the worst judgment on a learner, it must be avoided
at all costs and certainly never promoted as a learning tool!
But I
believe that failure is a fundamental part of the positive learning
process. Understanding our attitude to
failure, and where it comes from and moving through the barrier it has thrown
down is a wonderfully liberating and positive experience and will help us grow
and learn more in the future, and, importantly, learn more efficiently and effectively.
How
can we understand success if we have never failed? And of course the fear of failure is the
thing that stops us even trying. How
many times have I heard someone I am teaching how to juggle throw the beanbags
down and say ‘I can’t do it.’ And then
with a few more moments of practice they discover that actually they can do it
and go on and through that psychological learning barrier and really start
achieving.
Of course
it’s not always as easy as that and some people’s learning barriers can take a
lifetime to dismantle. But once the
barriers start to come down there really is NOTHING that we cannot achieve.
So
I’m trying to practice what I preach.
Having failed to earn enough money in 2013 to allow me to thrive through
the winter, I’m learning that surviving is on the road to thriving and, like
Maya, my mission in life is to thrive in 2014 and beyond!
All
the best from a road near you,
Mr
Alexander