One of my favorite songs as a kid had a line in the middle that said, "You gotta win a little, lose a little..." I have to lose, huh? Yes, it is part of the process.
If you don't want to take it from me or from this song, just look at a handful of many bits of wisdom about failure a quick Google search provided:
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein
"Failure is not the opposite of success; it is part of success." - Anonymous
"Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure avoid success." - Robert Kiyosaki
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
The reason I was thinking about this idea of failure recently is not because of grad school. Please, we haven't even started the semester yet! Instead, it is because I binge-watched the first season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon this weekend. (I'm not saying I'm proud of that - it was way too much television in too short a period of time.) While some of the language and topics are crude/distasteful, I think the show has value overall. One of the big ideas I think audiences can take away is that everybody bombs. Tanking is part of the process. And you have to be okay with that - not just okay, though; you have to be willing to learn from it.
If you've seen the show, you know that Midge carries around that notebook of hers that she uses to take copious notes once she decides comedy is her thing. That's an example of how Midge is willing (after a few periods of serious self-doubt about her talent) to learn from the success of others and a combination of her own successes and failures. Her manager and a few others help her figure this out. (Don't worry, I wouldn't consider this information a spoiler.)
Growing up, I was way too serious about everything and often nervous to try something new if I thought I wouldn't measure up to the expectations. This went for school, sports, extracurriculars, classes I decided to take in college - you name it. I probably missed out on a lot. I'm surprised I didn't give myself ulcers. And it was my own fault - I brought that fear of failure on myself; it wasn't exercised on me by anyone else. I just couldn't get comfortable with failing.
But let me tell you something, teaching has made me less afraid of failure because it's impossible not to fall flat on your face from time to time (or, daily) in front of your students. Without the failure, I wouldn't know how to get better as a teacher. Nothing is more honest and raw than the feedback of a teenager - they let you know if something wasn't good or right. Working with kids is humbling and, sometimes, slightly humiliating on a regular basis.
I'm never going to be one of those picture-perfect Pinterest teachers who make everything and every lesson seem like magic and unicorns. It's messy business. It's hard work. And when I got into it, I had no idea how much I was going to fail - no one prepares you for that; nothing can prepare you for the students in your care. But you know something else? Kids are resilient. They'll learn something, even if the day felt like a flop. And they'll still love you, even when you wanted to (metaphorically) wring their necks the day before. Failure is a natural part of the learning cycle - you just gotta keep it going with persistence, creativity, hard work, and a little (or a lot of) luck.
So fail big, my friends. Or, in the words of Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture), "Better to fail spectacularly than to do something mediocre." And, make sure you take time to learn from it. (Don't worry, I'm taking my own advice too.)
Can you tell school is on the brain? We're back at it... How many weeks until Easter break?
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