Failure is an aspect of humanity that doesn't receive the praise that it deserves. I am not calling for an anthropomorphized version of failure where we give it a participation medal for taking part in human development. This is me calling for failure to be praised and accepted as a key part of what makes you, You.
Read the next question and take notice of what you think about.
What is failure?
If the first association you made to failure is negative then I have some good news for you!
... it's not negative, at all. Watch this video and if it interests you then keep reading.
Is it that we are afraid to admit to it? That we are afraid of how others view us when admitting to it? Fear of failure is something that our culture quietly supports and of which is the stem to our glorification of people’s ‘natural talent’. If you have ever worked hard to build a skill – whether it’s artistic, physical, or intellectual – there comes a point where natural talent is a very small part of the actual process. That our mastery of anything takes thousands of hours of effort and failure.
I think the truth about any success is that it takes a lot of failure, not natural talent. How far does talent get you when you have just started something for the first time? Talent is simply based on previous experience and learned skills. When someone picks up an ability quickly it is only the result of what they have learned and achieved in the past. A person can have the genetics for long arms and height yet this does not mean that they have a natural talent for Basketball, that's something that you just inferred onto them. If they had grown up doing physical activities such as wrestling with their siblings, making an effort in gym class, and trying to block the thrown erasers from across the class then all of those physical skills may give them that basic talent when you throw them the basketball for the first time. Yet that talented person has already associated his/her lifestyle around that skill from before they had even set foot on the court. It's possible that many of the people reading this have dismissed the clumsy kid because they tripped over their own feet on the way to the court. Why don't you let the clumsy kid fail on the court if they have the drive? If that kid works until failure then stands back up to fail again, I would make them the captain of the team. Not due to their playing abilities but because they can fail properly. If you know the history of Mozart you should understand that he was called a child prodigy, the best musician and composer in history. Most of the music we listen to today is derived from his work in some way. Yet he was worked from morning until night by his father playing and studying music. No math, science, PE, or other classes, Mozart was being pushed to failure by his father every day from the moment he could grasp something in his hands. Being called a Prodigy is more of an insult considering that it implies some talent that he had from birth. Mozart was not the greatest because of talent or any god given right, he was the greatest because he failed the most and failed the hardest, then stood up and pushed for more.
Do not feel lucky that you have pushed through the mud and are now at the top. This is a world of change and your brain is an exact mimic of that. Claim luck when you win the lottery, not when you have worked hard to achieve. The synapses in your brain are changing. Adapting to newly learned process and information and then organizing them when you sleep.
https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/five-ages-of-the-brain/
We should be teaching children to fail. Give them the skill of adapting to every failure that comes their way. Einstein, one of the greatest minds in history was denied entry into a doctorate program at the University of Bern. The man that has arguably contributed more to the human race than anyone else. You have every right to do great things but you do not have the right criticize others when they fail and then stand up and push harder.
If you read German, this is a letter to Einstein from the Dean at the University of Bern regretfully rejecting him.
Your brain adapts to accepting failure and then giving up or it adapts to accepting failure and then pushing harder. Think of an event in your past where you were denied, pushed down, told no, criticized for trying, and think of whether you pushed harder or gave up. There will be many times where you did either, none of which you should ashamed of simply because you are You because of those events. Your brain is constantly adapting and the old saying of, "you are what you eat" is exactly the same as, "you are what you think". Consider Donald Trump, currently the President as I write this and maybe not for much longer. Compulsive lying is something that he seems to have in every back pocket. His staff do it for him to the point where their contradictions are typically in their very next sentence. As much as you may cringe with the thought of this or are currently yelling at your screen in support, the fact of the matter is that Donald Trump is a compulsive lair. The studies behind compulsive lying point towards it actually feeling good, like cigarette to a smoker that hasn't had one for a whole day. Here is what science says about your brain adapting to the common habit of lying.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110130-lying-feels-bad-at-first-but-our-brains-soon-adapt-to-deceiving/
You're brain is not only changing day to day, it is even more importantly building habits. Habits that make it easy for your brain to react and decide things during your mundane activities. Everyone has them, and hopefully you know some of your reactionary habits. Do you react the same way that your parents did? Do you always have the same reaction when you're not listening to someone who is talking to you? These things are habits that make it easier for ourselves... in some ways. Just take this concept one more step further and apply it to failure. What is your habitual reaction to failure? The next time you fail in any way try to take note of what you do and think and feel. Soon, after about a month of taking notice of any failure, you will have made the act of noticing your failure habit and be on your way to using failure as your best skill on the basketball court.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/forming-new-habits_b_5104807.html
Thank you for reading and I hope this has not only helped but given you some inspiration to fail properly.
