Failing is a data point on your journey, which reveals your actual pace of development. The more you fail, the better you become- because you learn.
It’s true, learning lessons can be hard and that’s one reason we try to avoid it at all costs.
It’s much easier to remain stagnant, enjoy the skills and knowledge you already possess. You might feel strong and powerful today, but the truth is, you’re making yourself vulnerable for tomorrow.
Then you tell yourself, of course, I should learn but I just don’t have the time. My day is filled with random; work and family-related tasks and I never even have time for myself. I would love to learn but I just can’t do it now.
Even though that sounds like a legitimate reason, let’s not beat around the bush, it’s an excuse.
We all have a lot to do, we are all busy. Learning hurts, and your brain knows it. Your brain hates change because that’s what we, as a society are taught from young. Change means uncertainty and uncertainty means danger.
When you were a kid, school taught you to downplay your innovativeness and creativity and to do as you were told. School taught you that the only way to learn, the “right” way to learn, was to read the book, memorize the text and then write it down on the exam paper. You had to stay silent. You weren’t allowed to cheat and at no point did they ever say you could learn from failing.
The only thing that mattered was memorizing what you read, and the answer was right.
Nothing else mattered.
No one cared that that isn’t the way the world works though. In real life, your objective is to solve problems by any means necessary. And do you know who is best at solving real-life problems? Who is most likely to succeed in today’s society? It’s the rascals or rebels. Those who wanted to learn creatively. The ones who googled things and read what others had written. The ones who were removed from the general population and labeled as the dumb ones- losers.
So, in order to be relevant tomorrow, we need to break from the shackles our school systems and society chained us to. We need to stop fearing change and start loving failures. We need to remove our ego from the equation.
Constant learning is a skill just like any other. You become better at it only by practice.
The thing about failing: No one else is judging you, so why should you?
My recommendation is to start from somewhere you have zero knowledge or experience. Go to YouTube or Masterclass and pick a topic you never thought you would and start. Start learning! As you learn, put your newfound knowledge into action.
Of course, you will fail, but that’s a good thing! Learn from your mistakes by analyzing what went wrong and then try again. You might fail this time too but most likely, not by the same mistake you failed from before. Study hard what went right and also, what went wrong. Instead of becoming discouraged, become curious. No one else is judging you, so why should you? You now know more than you did yesterday. That, my friends, is called progress.
Keep practicing and one day, you’ll get it right.
Learning is not only fun; it is vital to our survival. So, if you care about your future, start failing because your future depends on it.
To summarize, here are three key reasons why you should fail more often:
- When you fail, you learn
- Failures provide invaluable experience, which in turn make you a more valuable asset in the future
- New opportunities appear when you fail and learn enough
With love, Mikael Hugg
