Read

How Making Mistakes is Actually the Key to Success

Creator:
Published:
December 14, 2023
February 18, 2019
Read about the importance of taking risks and making mistakes to grow from them.

How well do you handle failure — at work, in school, in relationships?

Not so well? You’re in good company.

The problem is bad enough that some colleges have introduced programs to teach students that imperfection is, well, perfectly alright.

“Young adults face an onslaught of curated social-media feeds that show peers’ seemingly perfect lives, school officials say, which can make them feel alone in their failures,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Add to that the bubble of parental protection and the high stakes associated with attending a pricey college, and schools say students need help understanding that stumbles are inevitable, and even valuable, parts of growing up.”

And the stats back up such concerns. A recent study by the American College Health Association that suggests that more than half of all undergraduates find academics “traumatic or difficult to handle.”

The story caught my attention because I teach nursing, and I tell my students early on that failure is pretty much expected. In fact, one of the things we teach is failure resilience — the skill to learn from failure and move on to improve — because failure is so unavoidable when learning a difficult skill.

We all fail when we are learning something new — it’s the key to our success. Come to think of it, it just might be the key to all success.

I tell my students that it’s a lot like going to live in another country. You can study the language; you can study the culture and history; you can go online and try out virtual visits there — even chat with natives in real time. Yet, as every ex-pat discovers quick enough, there’s nothing like actual feet on the ground — actual, unpredictable, on-site human interaction — to show you how much you don’t know. You’re bound to make spectacular errors in discourse, mannerisms, and decorum, but that’s how you learn.

Every nurse who’s ever given you a shot — or started an IV in your arm, or inserted a nasogastric tube, or whatever — once didn’t know how to do that. And now he does. It wasn’t magic — it was work, a work that entailed not only the risk of messing up, but often actual mess-ups (mostly on mannikins, thankfully).

The best nurses know that such risk-taking never ends: There’s always something new to learn, another skill to acquire, another kind of clinical situation to find out about.

In other words, the risk of failure is perpetually part of the job. Yet nurses show up to work and serve and keep learning day in and day out.

It’s a good example for all of us. Any new endeavor involves mistakes, but our experience also teaches us that we can handle these flubs and survive — even get better. Simply put, we learn that risk-taking — stretching ourselves, going beyond our bubble — isn’t just part of the job that we need to tolerate. We should embrace it.

And the failure that comes with it.

Creators:
Rick Becker
Published:
December 14, 2023
February 18, 2019
On a related note...
How to Be More Eco-Friendly at the Office

How to Be More Eco-Friendly at the Office

Marye Colleen Larme

How I Unlocked the Spiritual Reality of Belonging

How I Unlocked the Spiritual Reality of Belonging

Renée Roden

Buying Your First Home? Here's What You Should Know

Buying Your First Home? Here's What You Should Know

Khang Tran

5 Essential Steps to Creating Your Own Blog

5 Essential Steps to Creating Your Own Blog

Sophie Caldecott

What Happened When I Stopped Letting My Parents Pay For Everything

What Happened When I Stopped Letting My Parents Pay For Everything

Emily Mae Mentock

Pros and Cons of Buying vs Leasing a Car

Pros and Cons of Buying vs Leasing a Car

George Cressy III

What It Takes to Be a Chef on the Rise

What It Takes to Be a Chef on the Rise

Grotto

Learning to Forgive Myself for Not Being On Track

Learning to Forgive Myself for Not Being On Track

Alexandria Wellman

How to Know if You're Ready to Buy a House

How to Know if You're Ready to Buy a House

George Cressy III

Free Download: Customizable Budget Spreadsheet

Free Download: Customizable Budget Spreadsheet

Grotto

The Millennial's Guide to Saving for Retirement

The Millennial's Guide to Saving for Retirement

George Cressy III

“Who I Am” is More Important than “What I Do”

“Who I Am” is More Important than “What I Do”

Molly Cruitt

How These Millennials Are Making the Most of Their WFH Spaces

How These Millennials Are Making the Most of Their WFH Spaces

Grotto

4 Things I Wish I Knew In My Early 20s

4 Things I Wish I Knew In My Early 20s

Lillian Fallon

How To Build a Career from Scratch

How To Build a Career from Scratch

Tamara Stacey

My Hands Were Made to Serve

My Hands Were Made to Serve

Chelsea Kau

Actor Hasn't Forgotten His Immigrant Roots

Actor Hasn't Forgotten His Immigrant Roots

Grotto

3 Things New Managers Should Learn to Say Often

3 Things New Managers Should Learn to Say Often

Ben Wilson

My Plans are Ruined, But I'm Realizing It's a Gift

My Plans are Ruined, But I'm Realizing It's a Gift

Marye Colleen Larme

5 Tips For Living on a Tight Budget Without Feeling the Pinch

5 Tips For Living on a Tight Budget Without Feeling the Pinch

Sophie Caldecott

newsletter

We’d love to be pals.

Sign up for our newsletter, and we’ll meet you in your inbox each week.