Yesterday, I talked about starting small and building up toward greater things. Today is a new day.
When looking at some of the most successful people in the world, one thing they all have in common is that they've gone through their fair share of trial-and-error. They're by no means perfect. Many have hit rock bottom (some multiple times) before coming out at the top. What they've failed to do they reflected on and incorporated in their next endeavor. They work hard and never give up on the grind and eventually hit the jackpot. Nobody just instantly becomes successful on the first try, there were a lot of things leading up to that moment that help paved the path.
We're programmed from birth to instinctively remember negative moment more strongly than we do positive ones. Way back in the day it was how we learned to not do things that would end up killing us. It's how we knew not to touch fire. To not casually walk up to a tiger and not expect to get completely reamed by it. Today, it's why so many readily avoid any and all conflict because of the possible dangers. In the same way that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, the negatives in life can teach us things the positives can't.
As a teacher, whenever I have a lesson that doesn't go so well it feels bad. I feel like I need to do my best to improve and it often forces me to reevaluate everything about my teaching and what I can do in order to improve it. If I were always successful sure it'd be nice, but I'd also never learn anything from my experiences. I'd just come out with an inflated ego. On the other hand, if I never acknowledged the fact that my lessons aren't perfect I'd just continue making the same mistakes over and over and I'd never get anywhere. I'd stagnate in an endless cycle of denial.
The value of failure is not only perspective, but also humility. Failure keeps us grounded when our egos want to fly to the moon. Failure provides us with the insight that there's always something to learn and when we start acknowledging our mistakes and put what we learn into practice we begin making the right steps toward progress.
Peace
"We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." - Lloyd AlexanderIf we are spoon-fed all of the answers in our life we might learn what to do in order to become successful, but we're not likely to understand why. The main difference between studying and working toward developing and skill and just having the skill is what we learn from the process. In one situation we experience what works and what doesn't. We internalize the lessons learned from our hard work. In the other situation we just experience what works, so our perspective is limited.
When looking at some of the most successful people in the world, one thing they all have in common is that they've gone through their fair share of trial-and-error. They're by no means perfect. Many have hit rock bottom (some multiple times) before coming out at the top. What they've failed to do they reflected on and incorporated in their next endeavor. They work hard and never give up on the grind and eventually hit the jackpot. Nobody just instantly becomes successful on the first try, there were a lot of things leading up to that moment that help paved the path.
We're programmed from birth to instinctively remember negative moment more strongly than we do positive ones. Way back in the day it was how we learned to not do things that would end up killing us. It's how we knew not to touch fire. To not casually walk up to a tiger and not expect to get completely reamed by it. Today, it's why so many readily avoid any and all conflict because of the possible dangers. In the same way that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, the negatives in life can teach us things the positives can't.
As a teacher, whenever I have a lesson that doesn't go so well it feels bad. I feel like I need to do my best to improve and it often forces me to reevaluate everything about my teaching and what I can do in order to improve it. If I were always successful sure it'd be nice, but I'd also never learn anything from my experiences. I'd just come out with an inflated ego. On the other hand, if I never acknowledged the fact that my lessons aren't perfect I'd just continue making the same mistakes over and over and I'd never get anywhere. I'd stagnate in an endless cycle of denial.
The value of failure is not only perspective, but also humility. Failure keeps us grounded when our egos want to fly to the moon. Failure provides us with the insight that there's always something to learn and when we start acknowledging our mistakes and put what we learn into practice we begin making the right steps toward progress.
Peace
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| When we fail we learn what must be done in order to succeed. This is what's achieved by reflection. |
What have you learned from your failures?
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