Failure Is An Option

People always say that 'failure isn't an option' and in the past I've always tended to agree with them.  As a bit of a perfectionist the thought of failure, no matter how insignificant, has never really sat well with me.  There is great pressure in that.  Pressure I've put on myself.

As a teacher we tell our students that it is okay to make mistakes.  They need to know that.  Otherwise what's the point of learning?  Our students don't know the things we are teaching them, and they are going to make mistakes on the path to mastering them.  For them failure is something they encounter and stumble over on a regular basis.  I started to wonder why I thought it was necessary for students to encounter failure and yet not acceptable for myself.

I am an oldest child.  I think that has something to do with it.  Oldest children are often perfectionists.  It's in our wiring.  Unlike younger siblings we only had adults to watch to learn to do things and we want everything to be just perfect.  So I've found making mistakes hard.  Now as an adult I realise that mistakes are proof that you are trying, that you are learning.

When we experience failure the hardest thing to get over is often our own egos.  We feel like we are not good enough, that we should just give up.  There are lessons here for us in dealing with our students when they experience failure, after all they don't know that failure isn't the end of the world.

• Give them opportunities to fail in a safe environment, when all is not lost through making a mistake.
• Teach them to recognise when they have failed and give them the tools to reflect on why, and how to move forward in a positive way.
• Help them to understand the importance of feedback so they can begin to learn to take advice and constructive criticism.

Failure is a necessary key to success, indeed it is likely the most important ingredient.  Without it we are not pushed to new heights, to try new ways of doing things.  How many times has a person achieved their greatest success just beyond what seemed to be their greatest failure.  A great quote I've heard is that everyone needs to fail.  But when you fail you need to fail fast and then you need to fix it fast.

I like that.

Be prepared to make mistakes.  But when you do brush yourself off and quickly set about trying to right it.  The key to success is to not let failure get you down but to use it to spur you on to bigger, better and brighter things.  To come back the next time with a smarter approach, a stronger will to make it work.

Failure is often dressed as disappointment but it is also cloaked in beautiful possibility.

Failure is an option.