photo credit: The Happy Robot via photopin cc
We all fail. It doesn’t matter what we do, we’re going to fail. When we were learning to walk for the first time, how many times did we fall? As toddlers, we had reckless abandon for trying new things and were unafraid of failing. Undeterred, we would get back up and try again.
What about learning to ride a bike for the first time? Guess what? We fell down. But for most of us, we probably got back up and tried again, skinned knees and all. It doesn’t matter if it’s personally or professionally, we’re going to fall down. We’re going to fail. The important thing is to get back up and try again.
If you don’t fail, how are you going to learn and improve? Not to mention how boring would your life be if you were perfect with everything you did? While we all strive for perfection in all that we do failure is a natural component of learning. I recently heard a clever acronym for fail: First Attempt In Learning. Very true.
I also have my own personal acronym for FAIL:
Finding
Alternatives
In
Life/Living
Finding Alternatives in Life or Living. How are you going to find those alternatives without trying? While many of us have heard that “Failure is Not an Option,” we tend to paralyze ourselves thinking about the repercussions of failing. The mere thought of failure stresses many of us out – forcing us into a realm of analysis paralysis. Decisions take longer to make, plans or projects get delayed and the good intentions we had about completing tasks go for not.
We need to accept the fact that we’re not perfect and that failure is an option, for all of us. The important thing is to learn from our mistakes and grow from them. Failing just for the sake of failing isn’t going to accomplish anything. However, if we grow as a result of those failures, we can only see improvement in our lives.
What say you? What have you failed at that has only made you stronger personally and professionally?
