A Simple Explanation of the Fine Line Between Failure and Learning
It doesn’t make you a failure just because you lose, make a mistake, show up unprepared, or don’t capitalize on an opportunity. On the other hand, you won’t automatically learn and get better because of these unforced errors either. Indeed, there is a fine line between failure and learning.
To explain how to toe this fine line between failure and learning, I would like to point you to the words of who I consider the greatest overall coach of all time, John Wooden. In one of his classic quotes, Wooden states the following:
You can make mistakes, but you aren’t a failure until you start blaming others for those mistakes. When you blame others you are trying to excuse yourself. When you make excuses you can’t properly evaluate yourself. Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.
With this in mind, to successfully toe that fine line between failure and learning, you must focus on what caused the failure while separating your ego from those causes. Your ego is going to tell you that you failed because of someone else, bad luck, chance, or some other factor you don’t control. Once you learn not to listen to your ego, you can then learn how to learn from failure.