Give failure a laugh - YoM Day 244

Eight months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 244. Yesterday, I talked about focusing on the quality of what I'm doing over the quantity. Today is a new day.
"Failure is not fun. It can be awful. But living so cautiously that you never fail is worse." - J.K. Rowling
Japan puts a lot of pressure on kids from a young age to perform. In the first days of my classes, some kids would go into tears because they didn't want to make mistakes. They came into my class thinking they had to be perfect or else they'd be disliked. I get it, too. Failing sucks and feels bad. The fear of failure can prevent us from venturing forth and doing the things we want in life. It can stop us from reaching our full potential. Like all obstacles we face in life, it's something we must learn to overcome.

I am still fairly new to teaching (I still have so much to learn and improve on) and so I make mistakes all of the time. Sometimes I'll forget to set the table for the kids to gather and do their homework before class starts, or I'll try a game only for it to backfire and end horribly. Whatever the mistake may be, my kids can totally tell when I mess up and I make sure to laugh it off every time because I think the students need to see that mistakes are okay as long as the intent is there.

I taught my Saturday kids classes as usual today and as the day was coming to an end I noticed how all of my students weren't afraid to give it their all. Even the students who are usually shy would try answering my questions and openly accepted my corrections without fear or any looks of disappointment. They know that I don't expect them to be perfect every time. In the same way I end up laughing at my own mishaps, my kids are learning to shrug their mistakes off and focus more on doing it right the next time.

Failures happen, so we shouldn't expect ourselves to be perfect all of the time. Learning to laugh at them helps me acknowledge them and making light of them is my way showing that I won't let them bring me down. The key to becoming unbreakable is being able to turn anything into a positive experience in some way. So give yourself a laugh as a way of forgiving your mistakes. Life's more fun that way. So laugh and learn from the experience. We live and learn.

                                                                                                                    Peace
Give failure a laugh
Messed up? Ain't no thang. Doesn't mean we still can't enjoy life.

Comments

Post a Comment