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April 3, 2021

A Million Chances For Mistakes

By Barry Rudesill

Well, excitement is building for all of us here at The Trek! In a few short weeks, we will (hopefully) be putting the finishing touches on Trek 2.0! The videos will be edited and uploaded, the workbooks completed, the Facilitator’s Guide finished...and then we plan on collapsing. (We’ll be starting “Scenic Overlooks” this Fall!)

It’s been a long road to get here. We actually started this project nearly TWO YEARS ago! In that time, we’ve faced massive construction projects, failed heating systems, and a global pandemic. In addition, we had cameras die, audio issues, broke a computer, and had to buy a new – and expensive – headset microphone.

Please understand that I am NOT complaining! We believe in The Trek, we love what we do, and we consider all of you to be worth any effort! You truly are brilliant, and we are honored that you have joined us on this journey!

The reason I sat down to write today, however, is because someone asked me, “Are you going to take apart the set right away when you’re done?” After some thought, I said, “No.” They seemed rather surprised; after all I had just explained how excited I was to be reaching the end of this phase of the project. But, we are NOT taking down the set immediately because of our perceptions and expectations.

We have had a team of proofreaders combing through the material for Trek 2.0 from the very beginning; and the insight we received, the advice, and the feedback from all of you helped to shape the new material. And we’re so glad for all of that input, because the number of edits and rewrites is, quite simply, amazing. I’m not sure a single class escaped “intact”, and some of the corrections we received were critical!

We have nearly four terabytes of video and audio files! For a program like this, we only need about one terabyte. Why do we have four? Because of all of the times that we made mistakes! In other words, for every one minute of footage we used, we had three minutes that we messed up! (Someday I have to make a blooper video and post it on our site!)

After we began to release the new video series, we started to receive feedback. On one of our early videos, there was an error in rendering that caused the audio to fail. We have had typos in workbooks. And, just today, I spent my time updating a bunch of errors in our Facilitator’s Guide. (We forgot that we added “Choices” and so “Identifying Behaviors” was class four, not three! Thanks Deb!)

So, why aren’t we taking down the set? Because our expectation is that we can – and do – make mistakes. Our perception is that no matter how many times we fix errors, there will probably still be another one lurking around the corner. And we want to leave ourselves the option of repairing the mistake if and/or when the time comes.

Now, it’s easy to become upset over this idea! To blame technology, the people around us, or the world! It’s easy to think we’re failures because we’ll “never get this right”! Or, we could simply give up and walk away because we’re not “good enough”!

Or, we can realize that mistakes are part of life, that we can use those opportunities to learn better ways of doing things, and that although we make mistakes, we are NOT a mistake. We can learn that “our best” does NOT mean “perfection”! We can give ourselves permission to go back and try to fix what we did wrong; and we can learn as we go.

Trek 2.0 has been a learning experience for us, and we hope it will be for everyone who experiences it. It’s been a wild ride, but it’s worth it. You’re worth it!

And, from all of us here at The Trek, we hope you enjoy your journey!

April 3, 2021

A Million Chances For Mistakes

By Barry Rudesill

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