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Failure IS a good thing!
Posted: May 03, 2024
A Personal Challenge: Actively pursue the opportunity to fail…
I think beginning in grade school, we were taught that you either pass or fail. Pass of course is good and failure of course is bad. Well when it comes to academic grades it is, but oddly enough when it comes to life some people are starting to question whether lack of failure is really a good thing.
Let’s look at competition in sport martial arts for a moment. If a student was competing as a white belt in the beginner division and over a 6 – 12 month period never lost, I think most people would be questioning why the student hasn’t moved up in Rank. 100% success yes, but where is the growth? The student could conceivably continue his winning ways for two more years, accumulate lots of trophies but never really get any better.
So I have a personal challenge to you if you choose to accept it. Go out and do the things you are not good at. For example, if you like to stay home and read a book, instead go out and enjoy a social experience with some friends. If you enjoy running as a form of exercise, try shaking up your exercise routine with some swimming or off road bike riding. If you are a person who tends to gravitate to math and numbers sign up for an art class. The idea is think about what you love and decide either how you can do a different version of that in the case of running or how can you do the opposite of the activity in the case of math vs. art.
There are two reasons why this is important; one is to realize that routine can lead to a limiting comfort zone, as was the case of the student who continued to compete in a division below his skill level. How can you call that a win or call the person who doesn’t challenge himself a winner? Where is the personal satisfaction and challenge in that?
The second reason is because when you get that little nervous feeling of doing something that you know you are not good at you come face to face with “failure” and realize that predictable beginner failure is simply something that everyone goes though on their way to becoming proficient. I have always liked the saying, every master of the art was once a disaster in the art.” Once you realize this then trying new things and growing your potential becomes easier.
To truly be your Personal Best requires you to fail because you are testing the outer boundaries of your skills and comfort levels. And to continue to do this consistently you have to redefine the word, “failure” and interpret it as necessary feedback to bring you closer to your goal. Take the time to fail and fail a lot. As long as you aren’t failing because you continue to repeat the same error realize that everything you want in life that is out of reach is just beyond the failures waiting for you.