Failure is Feedback

Every time we come up short, we have an opportunity to learn and grow. Failure scares us, leading us to believe we are not enough or that we aren’t as good as others. But this is just negative thinking. Failure is just a lesson, a chance to learn and see what we can do better next time.

If we start to treat failure as feedback, and not as a value statement on who we are or what we are capable of, it becomes a huge tool for growth. I fail to finish a project on time, and the lesson is that I need to prioritize better and work on my time management (feedback for growth). My team loses a game and we go 10-18 from the foul line and couldn’t rebound, there’s a lesson that we need to recommit to rebounding and work on our free throws. These are lessons that can make us better players, better students, better people.

The faster we fail, and the more we see it as feedback, the quicker we will get where we want to go. Getting better is all about failing, but we must approach these failures as steps to becoming great, as feedback that helps us. The best of the best fail often because they are living outside of their comfort zone. Don’t fear these shortcomings, but live a life where you can fail often and use the feedback to get better every time.

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -Michael Jordan