If you were able to make it through the video of my crash in yesterday’s post – 5 Ways To Get Stronger/Smarter/Better After A High Speed Crash, then hopefully you picked up some valuable lessons that I learned from that crash. Or you maybe I’ve shattered your current image of my intelligence.
Either way, here are a few more things I learned:
- Over confidence can hurt – There is no doubt you have to be confident to drive a Formula car at high rates of speed, around tight corners and over blind hills. My problem was I was so confident that I knew what the other driver was going to do, I didn’t ask the question, “What if he changes strategy and hits the brakes?” I had no doubt that he was going to take that turn as hot as I was. Had I thought about it, perhaps I would have ended up in 8th place instead.
- Winning isn’t everything – And it’s not the only thing, either. As I was sailing through the air, I was able to shout out two “LORD JESUS” before hitting the first time. As you see me rapidly jump from my cockpit, you can see I wasn’t really that hurt. I have no doubt that the God of Heaven and earth was holding me as that car tumbled like clothes in a dryer. No matter how badly I want to win, knowing there’s a God who loves me like crazy is way more important. The crash was a very violent crash. But I love a God who is bigger than my crashes—one who can pick me up out of them, dust me off, kiss my wounds and put me back on track.
Sometimes in life, we don’t recognize the lessons that are right in front of us. When we don’t, we miss out on growing.
Question: What lessons have you learned from crashes in your own life?
Definitely refers back to one of your other posts about failing well. Didn’t THE MAN after God’s own heart have quite a few crashes along the way just to find out that he still was pretty important to Israel?
Absolutely! I actually remind myself of that throughout life. It helps me to not feel hopeless when I do fail.
I totally believe that things like this are a step of faith. Once you have proven your faith, it’s a step of confidence. Faith builds confidence and you can’t have one without the other. Faith and confidence, it’s like a team.
So true Kim. When you have both, the stronger you are!
Fantastic post Chris. I hope you have a speedy recovery and we hear more from you on EntreLeadership soon. We are loved by an awesome God who continues to amaze, is active in our world, and intimately involved in our lives.
Preach it Jamie!! I actually am fine. I only had a stiff neck after that accident. Praise God who held me through it!!!! (and still does. ☺)
The lessons we SHOULD be learning are to not repeat the same mistake twice. We need to “fail forward”, to steal a phrase from John Maxwell.
If we repeat the same errors again and again, we have learned nothing from the pain. It would be as if you were heading full speed into that car, knowing he was going to choke up around the turn right in front of you.
That would be crazy.
I crash at least once a week…but I try to crash on a different track. Usually when I’m not drafting. It’s when I try to break from the pack and think that I can gain position without anyone else’s help.
Dude, that’s awesome. Great analogies!
Sometimes life seems like a big rollover. You barely have time to dust off, get in the car and keep going. If God’s not the lead of your pit crew, you’re going to spend a lot of time figuring out how to put yourself back together.
You can be broken in a million pieces and be a mess or you can use those little pieces to make a mosaic stained glass window, letting God’s light sine through.
Wow! Boy if that’s not the truth! Good stuff Lily.
Winning isn’t everything. – Very true in today’s greedy world. Today, one in keen to win at any cost. People are ready to sacrifice standards to taste success. Values, ethics an morals are thrown away at the wink of the eye.
” Winning isn’t everything” – Much needed reminder Chris! Thanks for the message today on this topic.
Absolutely Uma!
Lesson: To ever have a chance at winning after such a crash, you have to jump right back into it. No time for moping around.
So very true!!
Hi Chris,
I have to refer back to Dan Miller’s 48day.com blog post a short time back ” I wasn’t losing, I was learning to win” http://www.48days.com/2011/12/29/losing……/
So true, that While no one likes the painful times in life, it is usually the areas where we grow the most. Our biggest lesson learned from our life came 3 years ago on our fineness (see our story at http://www.fieldofdebt.com).
Live Beyond Awesome and thanks for the great post!
Jen
Thank you Jen!
Thanks for being comfortable enough to share lessons from your “failures”…although the fact that you learned from them means you really didn’t fail after all huh?
That’s true! Well, I don’t know if my bank account sees it that way. 🙂