Before I dive into a little anecdote of mine, I want to preface that I am part of a generation that doesn’t know how to navigate the roads very well without the use of automated apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps telling me where to go. Of course, I can generally course correct if I take a wrong turn, but if I’m going into an unfamiliar area, I do need to rely pretty heavily on a GPS based navitation system to guide me to where I need to go.

Preface aside, a few days ago I went on a trip to a friend’s place, and got there just fine, and had a great time catching up and hanging out. When I went back however, I had a bit of an interesting predicament that I’m sure all vehicle owners can relate to – I missed a turn.

Now, there’s usually a couple ways this goes normally goes when using a navigation app: You take the new route, or you u-turn back to the missed road. There’s usually a few parameters that goes into it like, “How late is this mistake going to make me?” or “Do I feel safe in this area?” or “Will I look weird turning around here?”. Something along those lines.

But sometimes we keep going. Despite glancing at the estimated time jumping from a 43 minute arrival time, to a 58 minute arrival time, we keep going. We take a route that is certainly less traveled.

I had one these moments, I missed a turn, and my travel time jumped about 20 minutes. Pretty costly in terms of time, but. For some reason, I decided against turning around to course correct, and kept driving forward.

Unintentional Exploration

“We don’t make mistakes, we make happy little accidents.” -Bob Ross

This quote came to mind as I was now very suddenly driving down a dirt road that I didn’t know existed until now, surrounded by tall fields of corn that was parted by this singular thin road. I had never been here before. I had never seen the city lights from this angle before. I was hit with this sense of awe, because I was suddenly cast out from just “going home”. I was allowing myself to explore. I think that’s the purpose of Bob’s quote, because there are certainly mistakes that are ANYTHING but happy little accidents.

But there’s a certain mindfulness that can be applied to regular inconveniences that allow us to explore an otherwise unpleasent experience. It’s different than optimism persay, rather it’s a form of reshaping the experience to create a “challenge”. I certainly could’ve easily driven home pissed off that I committed to a drive that was a whole 20 minutes extra long, but I deliberately allowed myself to be open to the experience.

It lead me to think, maybe that’s what separates the truly resilient people in this world: The ability to reshape negative experience into something different in various areas of chaos. We’re all capable of this to some degree I think. But, it’s people who have trained themselves on negative chaos who end up being standing the tallest.

So maybe I ought to do this more. Take the road less travelled. Let a Google search mislead me. Make some bad art. Send the text message that I delete halfway through typing. Perhaps we’re closing doors more often than we think just by correcting ourselves. Maybe we’re too quick to scrutinize the cost of a mistake.