22 Dec What we can all learn from our failures
There’s much talk, at this time of year, of gratitude and reflecting upon our annual successes.
As there should be.
But it also a time of year when for some of us, our thoughts can turn to mistakes and failures.
This need not be a bad thing for our happiness and success!
Failure, just like success, can teach us much about life and even happiness. Here’s how…
Failure’s Silver Lining
via the Huffington Post by Jason Olsen
Failure. Just reading the word makes us uncomfortable. Try whispering the word under your breath. Do you physically feel the discomfort? Most of us do. There’s something about that word that we despise, yet failure is an important part of our growth. In fact, it’s essential to our survival. We are programmed for failure from the day we are born. If you don’t believe that just watch a child learning to walk. They fail time and time again, falling, crashing, crying, and grasping for support along the way. Yet eventually, they figure it out. They learn to walk, then to run. Most of us stop there, but others go on to do other amazing things, from skateboarding to skiing and extreme sports. The lesson learned is failing repeatedly at something is how we learn best. We can study concepts and principles which shape our thoughts and beliefs, but we don’t learn from them like we learn from our experiences. And some of the most rewarding experiences are the ones we fail at.
THE BRAIN NEEDS FAILURE TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE
Our brains are hardwired for learning, which means they’re also hardwired for failure because failing at something is how we learn. Failure is how our brain’s neurons are created. That’s why our brains are constantly looking to identify opportunities where failure occurs. These situations not only present our minds with an opportunity to learn and adapt to improve and become better. They also create the neural connections in our brains that make thinking, problem solving, decision making, and communicating more fluid and easier for us. But despite these known facts, why do we continue to loathe failure and avoid it like the plague? Why do we try and protect ourselves (and others) from failure? What, instead, if we told ourselves to fail like your life depends on it?
…keep reading the full & original article HERE