Failure is a scary word. It comes with many negative connotations from falling short on goals and dreams to feelings of not being good enough or wasting time and money. People have a tendency to avoid the “f-word” at all costs. For some, failure has become such a hot button issue that it can be paralyzing.
To fail is natural, it is part of the learning process. Your failures are the best kind of teacher if you ask me. They teach you patience, push your boundaries, and makes you question yourself. But more importantly, it makes you see that it’s never over. That there’s always a way out. And that the only way to success is to fail first.
That’s why you should give yourself
Permission to Fail
Permission to fail is permission to learn. This is why it is so important to accept failure as a part of your growth. It’s natural, and in fact, some of the world’s most successful businesses make failure a part of their development plans.
Let’s take the Tech Behemoth Google for example.
The power of constant failure
Google has so much power and influence now that it is almost too big to fail. The Google brand has become so strong why would you ever use another search engine? That’s why it is their responsibility to recognize that the best way to stay ahead of the competition. Because Google has recognized that failure is a cornerstone for learning experiences, they have made it a part of their development and goal setting for employees.
Mission.org has an interesting article that goes into greater depth about Google goal setting if you’d like to learn a bit more.
Want the tldr? (Too long, did not read), sometimes setting achievable goals can settle you into a comfort zone. This is where you set goals you know that you will achieve, and avoid goals that could lead to failure. Working in your comfort zone stops you from trying so much. And when you no longer try, you’re no longer growing or stretching to achieve greater things.
So this is a lesson in being a bit daring. I wrote about SMART goals and said to consider setting something that is achievable. Well, sometimes aiming for the stars is just as valuable. You might just end up on the moon.
it’s not broke unless you leave it that way
I apply the use of failure when I teach. Creating a safe space for failure is incredibly valuable. When my students are given tasks, there are opportunities for them to cause a bit of a blunder. You may be wondering, why on earth would I do that? Why let someone make a mistake, or worse! Let someone break something?
No one ever learned faster, or more thoroughly, than when trying to fix something. I believe it is the more responsible thing to allow others to develop the skills they need to recover from and thrive despite mistakes. It may seem a form of kindness, to shield others from failure, but I promise you, you are all more capable of adapting and overcoming problems than you would ever believe. That is why I think we should all embrace failure. We’ll learn a lot more from it. New skills. Resilience.
So if you find yourself in a position where you feel you have failed, have heart, and have courage. What can you learn from this failure? How can you turn this experience into something that feeds into your success?
Have any good tales of fails?
Do you have any instances where you’ve bounced back from a failure? How did you turn defeat to your advantage?
I’ve written a piece on setting goals, will you be applying stretch/fail goals in your plans for this year?
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