Hardest personal lesson learned?

[Alan Anderson]

I can get really, really crabby when I'm running on fumes. I need to recognize it and keep my distance from the students if that happens.

[asid61]

Nobody is right all the time, especially me. I get really heated defending stuff that's just plain wrong.

[Jcarbon]

This year, I learned a lot about how other teams work, both in our area and around the world, and it brought me a new rush of perspective. As a result, I came to the uncomfortable realization that my team is just not doing as great of a job as I thought it was in many areas, from teaching students to designing robots. To be clear, I'm still excited by what we're doing and proud of our accomplishments. But I had an idea in my mind of how comparatively successful we are, and it turns out that idea is unrealistic.

I'm continually inspired by how awesome other teams are, and I'm really trying to use this perspective positively to motivate improvement, but it's still hard to accept the fact that we're not as good I thought we were.

[Chak]

I learned that dealing with people is a lot harder than dealing with robots, and that I'd rather deal with the robots.

[Billfred]

Opportunities will not always arrive at the most convenient times, but you have to be ready to capitalize on them when they do.

[Metonym]

I moved from making highlight reels and running AV setups at events to teaching people to do those jobs.

For highlight reels specifically, I problem was that I can't expect students to have all the knowledge I had when I was their age. I expected too much out of my volunteers because of how much I was able to do in the past. But I did manage to learn how to teach people the skills they needed to reach what I had done in the past. They learned enough to let me take a back seat and just work on other projects during DCMP, they are a great bunch of kids that I can't wait to work with again.

[Briansmithtown]

I would say that the world isn't fair, and if you want to get something done, you better go and get it done and not sit around and wait for it to happen. Also people could easily ruin your season, and it's best to get those people out.

[GeeTwo]

The hardest lesson I learned is to back up and look at the big picture more often. Too many times we'd re-learn stuff the hard way rather than bring in prior experience that happened to be located elsewhere on the team.

[caboosev11]

One of the hardest lessons I learned was the importance of maintaining communication and appreciation in the team.

In the last few days of build season, the stress started piling on. Things were said, feelings were hurt, things were misheard and misinterpreted, people felt unimportant, mistakes were made, and some people almost walked out.

We realized as things started boiling over and worked hard to help improve the situation. We eventually went on to have our best season ever.

Even today, as happy as I am that my team made it to Einstein for the first time ever, I still sit and think about the things that have happened. Clear communication is important. Appreciation is even more so. Make sure you all take a moment to thank your team-mates for just being there. Don't let the heat of things make you forget that your team should be a family.

[Carolyn_Grace]

I learned that some teams are a better fit than others, and that's okay. It's hard to leave teams that you have invested time in, especially when you adore the students, but sometimes it's for the best.

Joining 1024 was one of the best choices that I made, and I'm grateful that they recruited me to help. The team I left isn't a bad team, they just weren't a good match for me.

I also learned that it's okay to sit back, and watch how a team works before jumping in to get fully involved.

[Nightwing430]

The hardest lesson for me on my team was to appreciate everything that everyone has done on the team for this season. I am apart of build/drive team and did not realize how much our marketing team has done for us. We had a group meeting before Worlds to tell everyone that we appreciate what they have done so far for the team. At the Asheville district event we had a rough start to competition but eventually we figured it out.

In all because of all of this that has happened I believe we have grown better as a team and we made it to Worlds because of it!

[Michael Corsetto]

I've learned to focus my energies into my spheres of influence.

These past two years have been frustrating for me. I've watched FIRST split the Championship. California continues to stall on Districts. Our 24 FLL teams in Davis are nearly unanimously ready to quit due to poor local event structure.

I've barked up all those trees and quickly found that my feedback/advice for improvement is either unwelcome or falling on deaf ears.

I only have so many hours in a day. I've decided to focus my time on the students I can impact through my mentorship of 1678 and local leadership in the Davis community.

We are running summer camps based around Vex IQ to smooth out the transition to Vex IQ in the fall.

I've dropped off the local RPC, in favor of helping organize a local off-season FRC competition.

While it is hard to realize your feedback is not valued, it doesn't seem so hard when there are so many other groups and organizations that welcome your energy, experience and enthusiasm.

-Mike

[Shrub]

A thing I've learned every season is that I cannot do everything, nor can I be everywhere at once. Nobody can, so there's no reason I should expect myself to. It's not bad that I have to keep remembering that. It's just a process.

I've also finally learned how to prioritize school over FIRST. Next school year, I'll finally be in a state where I can mentor a team if I so choose and balance my schoolwork.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

In many ways, FIRST is about taking risks, making mistakes, and learning lessons the hard way. What is the hardest non-engineering lesson that you learned this year? Feel free to elaborate on HOW you learned it if you want.

Not to drive 2300 miles cross country to Las Vegas to work the regional on rapidly failing tires.