That sounds a bit dramatic, huh? Failure does not always have to be catastrophic. Failure can be a small mishap like getting a few math problems wrong on a test. However, most times when I think of the word failure it is with much bigger mishaps in my mind. It is weird how certain words mean one thing to one person and a completely different thing to another person. I am one of those people who catastrophizes more often than not. Sorry! But I am learning and that is why I chose the topic I did to write about today.
We learn when we get things wrong. That is a fact. Much of the work I read while I was researching my dissertation topic stated those exact words or something similar. And as true as that statement is, some people cannot accept being wrong. That is where we need to focus our attention for the moment. If you cannot accept the fact that humans are not perfect, that humans get things wrong from time to time, then it will be hard for you to learn through failure. If that is you, then there is work to be done by you before recognizing that failure is not biased… it happens to all of us. Failure does not have to derail us from our goals, we just need to recognize our own responses to it and learn to be forgiving and grateful for the lessons it provides. I know it sounds like I have this all figured out, but I don’t… not yet anyway. As a teacher, I tried to meet my students who labeled themselves as perfectionsists where they were because I also labeled myself in the same manner prior to learning these lessons of accepting that we all fail at times. However, teens and young adults are not always ready to give up the choke collar of perfectionsim. We leaders need to be patient and continue to show that we also get things wrong from time to time.
This podcast is a learning experience for me. I have to learn to prepare for each episode, give myself grace when I say the wrong thing, and trust my daughter to teach me as we go. She is excited about this adventure and we want to be a source of happiness and joy to others as we share how we have not always gotten everything right the first time.
You can learn. I hope you find joy in learning as I do. Promise me that you will trust yourself as you begin new learning adventures. We all mess up from time to time. The important thing is to learn from it.
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