The Academy of Failed Events

The academe could be providing the greatest detriment to a positive philosophy of a failed event. When asked about failure, many people quickly refer to a test they failed or a homework assignment, or the grade that terrible teacher from the third grade who didn't like them gave them on their science fair project. Unfortunately, much of the education system in the U.S. shoots itself in the foot by worshiping red pens, wielding power, and penalizing students for making mistakes. One of the more ironic examples is the physical education teacher, whose main goal is to help students see the value of exercise and embrace physical activities, but who will use it as a punishment for unacceptable behavior. So school children quickly are conditioned to believe that running is a penalty. The education system has similar effects in other disciplines as well.

Even if a successful event happens on our first attempt, it is most likely associated with cognitive or kinesthetic skills that are parallel to those that we have mastered in another activity. One such example is mastering an athletic endeavor that utilizes a racket and then attempting another sport with a racket. Hand/eye coordination and positioning of the racket relative to the ball are similar and only require a short amount of time to recalibrate to the specificity of the new racket sport. The cognitive science of expertise studies sheds light on the reasons for such transfer of success and gives us reason to be patient with ourselves through failed attempts to acquire skill. We need nearly 10,000 hours of guided and deliberate practice in order to reach expert levels of performance at any complex task, whether it is athletic, intellectual, or artistic (Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Romer, 1993). Natural aptitude is much less important to later success than embracing the many failed attempts that accompany hard work and sustained effort. A tendency to avoid failing actually limits our potential to achieve expertise. In short, we must believe that we can fail early and fail often as precursors to higher levels of success.

Life is simply a series of random moments connected together through an understanding of what has happened in the past and what we believe might happen in the future. In short form, understanding = memory + foresight. In this view, failed events are a few of the many moments that have occurred and might occur. If we view failure as a moment, its magnitude may seem much less significant, enabling us to overcome the failed event more efficiently. These moments also provide us a continuous supply of opportunities. The catch is to realize them as they happen or soon thereafter, to stay on top of them and to navigate within (not around) them to enhance our quality of life. Quality of life does not mean success, money, avoiding mistakes, learning from mistakes, but the capacity to intensely and intentionally focus on the events each moment as they are presented and make the most of them by assessing their worth as you perceive them and anticipate their outcomes.