A new perspective on failure
Can you imagine how many times the person making this napkin art 'failed' before getting it just right? It's a great example of how practice makes perfect.
We're often told failure is a good thing. It helps us learn, it helps us grow. It's best to fail quickly so that you can find success more quickly etc etc.
Whilst I understand the logic, I still struggle with the idea of failure. Ideally I'd rather not fail at all!
But I do also see that in order to be innovative, to try something new, to be the boldest versions of ourselves, we do need to play near the edge of failure.
Last week I saw this Will Smith video edited by Goalcast. It's a 90 second clip where he explains his take on failing.
While he repeats some of the messages you will have heard before, firstly it's WILL SMITH!!! (cue big inspiration hit) and secondly he uses an analogy that makes the idea of failure more palatable.
Think about going to the gym and working out. Will says in the video: "When you go to the gym and you're working out you're seeking failure".
Think about it. One aim at the gym, is to build muscle. To build muscle, you lift heavier and heavier weights or complete more and more reps until you 'fail'. You hit your limit. That's it, you can't do any more. When we're at the gym or exercising, we're repeatedly working hard to get to a point of failure.
By lifting weights, you are causing tiny tears in the muscle fibres, which the body then repairs. This adapts the muscle so that it is better able to perform the same task next time. This is how muscles grow. So after failure, your body makes an adjustment and your ability to lift weights improves. *mic drop*
I hadn't thought of failure this way before - I think it's a great example that brings the positive (and necessary) parts of failure to life. If it's true for our physical bodies it follows it would be true for stretching our mental ability too.
The other point I like is when he says: "practice is controlled failure". We can all be guilty of not practising enough. Whether it's scripting out the phrases we'll use with our boss to get sign off or verbally practising a committee presentation.
If there's risk of failure it makes sense to control the variables - the scientific way to do that is through repetition e.g. practice. So the second lesson is to practice more - get more experience pushing boundaries.
I hope you enjoy the different perspective this brings to failure. And that this note gets you a step closer to taking controlled risks in your career - getting yourself out there. Interested to hear whether this resonates with you too.
