The importance of taking mistakes in one's stride

I think one of the most important traits needed for a PhD student to successfully navigate this journey is the ability to take mistakes in his or her stride. It is probably inevitable that no matter how brilliant the student it will take time to form the research proposal, from the research problem to the methodology chosen. And it is inevitable that changes will occur. A change in focus, in theoretical framework, in school (what if your first choice rejects you), in methodology, which I am currently undergoing...

I am a strange researcher. I came into research enamored with certain methodologies and I design studies around using particular methodologies. Scholars will tell me, this is not the way, you first find your research problem, and later on, then you find the right methodology to solve that problem. So I know clearly the correct direction.

However, to me... I am willing to tackle any interesting research problem... So it's tough for me to begin there, because there's so much to research. I prefer to constrain my choices by working backwards... But... working backwards doesn't always work. It works most of the time for me, but not this time.

I have had great difficulty finding a research problem and question for my revered "ethnograpy" method. You know, I have always wished to be an ethnographer, like the kinds that live with the locals in another culture... And I tried my best to write a research problem around this, also given my current resources and abilities and networks, but... it is beyond me...

I will probably switch back to the case study methodology. I tried my best, but it's not working.

So yeah, if... you don't take mistakes like these in your stride, to try to make a smaller deal of making big changes to your thesis, and these things keep happening, you'll be beaten!