Failure is not the best teacher
We have seen it thousands of times. A person comes up shy of reaching the goal they had set. That person consoles in another individual that they trust, and they are told, “You didn’t lose, you learned!” Instantly, the person who had failed feels better about themselves, and ready to attack that goal again, with some new found energy.
They then attack this goal in the near future, only to come up short again. “But how did I fail when I already learned from previous failures?!” they ask.
Failing is part of life. Everywhere we look, there are things people fail at. The biggest difference, is some failures are deemed as more “substantial” than others. The person who goes to bed and sets their alarm for 6 a.m. has the goal to be awake by 6 a.m. the next day. When they snooze their alarm, just once, they have already experienced failure, before they even got out of bed. The person who has been working hard for that promotion, only to be passed up for the position, has experienced failure. We can see the difference in how one is perceived as being more substantial than the other. But nonetheless, failure is failure.
However, both of these individuals can have comfort in knowing that they didn’t fail, but learned something from this experience, right? Wrong.
Failure is not the best teacher.
Reflection is.
That person who overslept can reflect on why they snoozed their alarm. Did they go to bed too late? Did they have their phone too close to them, making it easy to snooze their alarm? That person who did not receive the promotion. Did they choose to go out for drinks the night before the interview, and therefore not fully prepare? Did they down play their accomplishments in hopes of not sounding cocky? Reflection allows people to take actionable measures to make changes that allow them to better reach the goals they set.
Reflection is like the wallflower of our world, always there, but rarely noticed or used. And without reflection, people will never truly learn. Reflection allows us to evaluate where we can improve, and how we can be better equipped for future situations.
And the beautiful thing with reflection, is you don’t have to have failed to learn something. A company has a successful product launch, better than they have hoped. They meet as a team to reflect what when well, and how they can replicate it for future launches. A coach reflects on what went well in practice, and what they can continue to implement in order to have future successful practices.
So as the old saying goes, “failure is the best teacher”, I don’t buy it. Reflection is the best teacher.
Failure without reflection is just failure. Failure with reflection, is climbing towards Gettin’ Over the Hump.
Think you know someone who wants to Get Over the Hump?
Want to join the climb?