Destigmatizing Failure
Recognizing that failure is healthy and a normal consequence of working in a complex environment can help us look at failure as a learning process instead of dreading it. It also helps to let your failure(s) be out in the open, making them visible to yourself and others.
A public failure is a learning for all, as they learn to make errors and take ownership of their mistakes. Openly admitting your mistakes also sends out a strong message of your being courageous, humble and bold.
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Humans tend to blame mistakes on external events, circumstances and people. Admitting failure goes against our ego, as we think it exposes our incompetence, leading to potential loss of respect and self-esteem.
This makes us fear failure and highlights our tendency to attribute success to our efforts, and failure to circumstances.
Many mission-critical work environments report errors and mistakes on time. This is because the employees are allowed to commit and share mistakes, and report them without fearing that they will be sacked. This psychological safety is crucial to a healthy work environment.
It helps to know that failing is an inevitable part of our complicated working life, and aids our lifelong learning.
RELATED IDEAS
- Plus: Find mentors, real (maybe someone from your work) or virtual (from books). Learn from someone with more experience than you.
- Minus: Explain what you are learning while you are learning it. Teach someone with less experience than you.
- Equal: Find people who love what you love and spend as much time talking about this shared area as you can.
- Pick one and only one skill at a time to develop.
- Dedicate 15 minutes a day to reviewing your performance on a workplace skill.
- Isolate micro-behaviors. If you want to give a better presentation, break down what goes into a good presentation and set a goal.
- Get feedback. Ask people what you can do to improve.
- Focusing on one thing at a time until you finish it: if you focus on one project at a time until completion, you will make infinitely more progress than the person who does multiple projects at once.
- Having the right method: doing something that’s outside your usual routine requires not just commitment, but new methods.
- Actualization vs. possibility: the more you can adjust your life to the joys of doing and actualizing, over daydreaming and philosophizing, the more solid your life’s foundation will become.