We live in a society that is apprehensive about failing. We have many mechanisms to achieve success, from how we dress to how we select our career steps. Yet the value of failure as a learning opportunity, as an opportunity to learn and move forward, isn’t recognized.
We miss important feedback as we are in the midst of constant judgments about failing. We love successful people, yet we seldom recognize their investments, determination and dedication to learning and moving forward. We rarely ask who was behind these people, who encouraged them to innovate and try new things, we rarely recognize their courage to take risks and accept their mistakes and try again. We support the value of results more than the value of innovation, creation and creating oneself. We forget to value failure as a gift of feedback, as the gift of trying something new.
Let’s congratulate ourselves for experiencing new things, for innovating. Let’s take responsibility for a creative life, a life filled with the joy of creation. Let’s find a way to feel gratitude for our perceived failures and rename them as “learning opportunities,” as gifts to move us forward to a brighter future, to a life with even more creative potential. Let’s celebrate the lives of people who have had the courage to innovate, learn and create.
In gratitude to Dr. W, who always said “kiddo everything is a learning opportunity.”