Have you ever seen this truly amazing Nike advert featuring Michael Jordan?
He says:
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot…and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
How awesome Jordan is! Powerful stuff.
Here is more wisdom from a great leader Winston Churchill:
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
All inspiring and highly successful people succeeded through failures. No pain, no gain.
We are surrounded by a culture, which intensively focuses on success, power, fame and wealth (thanks, social media!). We see all these successful businessmen, celebrities and influencers and think about how perfect they are. And the success itself seems so easy 🙂
Failure is now strongly linked with the feeling of being not good enough. But in fact, failure is a crucial part of learning as it helps us to understand where we need to improve. By failing, we also build resilience, perseverance, compassion and creativity. And a character in general 🙂
We have all made mistakes in our lives and for sure had an epic failure (or not even one). But what is key here is our reaction to failure.
Remember, we’ve talked about Carol Dweck and her fascinating research on mindsets? Here is a quick recap (check out our post):
People with a fixed mindset believe their intelligence and abilities are “fixed” and cannot be changed in a meaningful way. They think that you are either smart or not, and if you fail – that means you are not smart. They would do everything to arrange success and avoid failures (at all costs), so they could “stay smart”. Basically, they would do everything they can to avoid looking bad.
In contrast, people with a growth mindset know that human qualities such as intellectual skills can be developed. They believe that if they put effort and apply the right strategies, they can get smarter. This type of people love challenges and cannot be discouraged by failure. They would use it as a learning opportunity to improve.
“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask “What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
Erin Hanson
Fear of failure is what holds most people back from fulfilling their dreams. It’s hard to fail when you are in your comfort zone, but all the growth happens outside of it. If you want to grow, you need to embrace the idea that you would be outside of the comfort zone and would fail (maybe not even once). And that’s OK ☺
So here’s the point: if we approach our failures with the right mindset (obviously GROWTH mindset), we come to realize that these mistakes are precious and we can learn so much from them. The information we get on what doesn’t work is priceless.
Therefore, don’t be afraid of challenges and never beat yourself up about your failures.
Just remind yourself that we either win (and that’s awesome) or we learn (and that’s awesome too). No movie was ever shot from start to finish without loads of re-takes. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And when you fail, say to yourself “Needs work!” Think about what did you learn from that and what are the next steps you will take to fix that mistake.
As the American inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison said,
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
So the question for you – what was your last failure (or mistake)? What did you learn from it?
Key takeaway: whenever you or your child fail or make a mistake approach it with the Growth Mindset ☺
Loads of love,
Irina and Dawid
