Stepcase Lifehack: Let’s face it. We all fail. As we go through life we have relationships that don’t work out, jobs that just aren’t right, exams that we flunk, initiatives that don’t succeed. The more new things we try the more failures we are likely to have. In fact, the only way to avoid failure is to do nothing new. The important thing is how we deal with failure. It can be part of a downward slide in which lack of confidence reinforces feelings of inadequacy and incompetence. But experiencing failure can be a learning experience and an opportunity for a fresh start. A good way to begin this process is by asking yoruself some tough questions.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
5 Great Questions to Ask Yourself After a Failure
Stepcase Lifehack: Let’s face it. We all fail. As we go through life we have relationships that don’t work out, jobs that just aren’t right, exams that we flunk, initiatives that don’t succeed. The more new things we try the more failures we are likely to have. In fact, the only way to avoid failure is to do nothing new. The important thing is how we deal with failure. It can be part of a downward slide in which lack of confidence reinforces feelings of inadequacy and incompetence. But experiencing failure can be a learning experience and an opportunity for a fresh start. A good way to begin this process is by asking yoruself some tough questions.
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I, among many, never like dealing with failure. Nevertheless- I have learned that it is something that is absolutely inevitable, especially when out of your comfort zone. Whenever I have to face a failure, I remember something that I've had to learn over the years, and something that my mother always told me: there are no failures, just lessons. So as much as I've tried to condemn this as extremely cliche and corny- there is so much truth here. Instead of fretting over a mistake, wouldn't it be so much more productive to take that mistake, and look at it as a friendly accident- something that is actually teaching you something that can help you in the future! I feel that by looking at failure in this respect, you are doing a huge favor for yourself.
These are great questions to ask ourselves after failures. I would also like to use these questions after other important events, such as the end of a class that had a lot of ups and downs. These questions are great particularly for a college student who should be learning a lot from the classes they take. We are in school to grow and learn, and should take the time to ask ourselves these questions to make sure we are keeping in check our potential and opportunities to change and grow for the better. Although these are tough questions to ask ourselves, they are important to consider.
I kind of agree with this article. While I think that one should always try to think positively and try to find the best way to correct the failure so it doesn't happen next time, sometimes it is not that simple. If you fail a test in school because you are sick, doing 27 extra things, and you are having family problems it is not really your fault. Yes you can take better care of your self but I think that extenuating circumstances and the positions we are put in in school and life, lead us to be over worked which is the main reason for failing. When it comes to failing at life I think that we are just distracted because of school and so it is hard to be normal people. I think that you can learn from your mistakes but sometimes outside influences are too great.
I agree with this article on most of its points. Failure is never something that anyone likes to deal with or accept, but it's a part of life. I think that one of the most important things that education, whether that is college or grad school, should teach its students is how to deal with failure. As the article said, there is always something that can be learned from failure, whether that is how something should be done different or something that should not have been done at all. How someone reacts to failure can tell a lot about their personality, much more so than how they deal with success. Especially in our business, as prospective theatre professionals, we will all have to deal with failure of some sort at some point, and it's important to learn how you should react to it. This article does a good job of condensing one relatively good response to it, but in the moment, it is very difficult to think rationally about the lessons learned, and I think that in a lot of ways, the only way to learn how to deal with failure is to actually deal with it when it happens.
While these are some good pointers in how to rise up from the ashes of failure, there isn't really anything profound here. The main take away here is that you need to be retrospective after a failure. If you do this many of these questions will be asked naturally however. The following article provides better advice on failure: http://lifehacker.com/5161844/failure-is-the-highway-to-success It encourages you to make the most out of your failure rather than just analyzing it like the previously mentioned article suggests that you do in the same situation.
There's nothing new here. Ben said most of this to me this morning after the huge mistake that happened this weekend.
"I hope you've learned something," he said. He didn't say it in a condescending disciplinary way more like a optimistic instructor: you got something out of this.
These are all important questions and I will certainly keep this close by. It's also difficult to accept and let go of a mistake.
"At least you made the mistake here and not when some company was paying you a million dollars to work them," was what he said afterwards. If this was in the real world, our shop would've lost a job and lost the confidence of the client (and possible future jobs.) While you can still learn from the mistakes, it still sucks to make them. A mistake is something that could've happened and didn't, failure is the repercussions of that mistake. Mistakes are very easy to learn from, failure teaches a harder lesson.
This is a great article to read in conjunction with the signs of stress/burnout article that was also posted this week. Both are vague and succinct, but make good points and are good starting points to creating learning experiences out of negative ones. Especially in the learning environment that we are all working in now, it seems like a waste if a failure occurs (which is inevitable) without anybody taking any new knowledge away from the experience. This article is a great jumping off point for any individual that has a hard time, in the past, from acknowledging and learning from their failures, as sometimes a failed experience teaches us something more valuable than a correct one.
I think being reflective is good, definitely learn from mistakes. But try not to dwell. And theres not always answers to these types of questions. Maybe you failed because you didn't care enough. Or because you staied up until 3am watching TV. Theres not ALWAYS something to learn from a failure. And if you cared about the project you probably already know why you failed. I think along with being relective it's smart to ask around. Maybe you thought you failed but no one else did.
While the phrase "learning experience" can drive anyone crazy, I believe in it. Any terrible experience that happens, at least you can learn what NOT to do. It's important to step back and think about your experiences so that each experience becomes an experience. It's only an experience if it gave you perspective on something. Who doesn't want to become more experienced? While they may be draining and horrible, failures are the most educational. Here at CMU SOD we always hear that we should take risks. One would rather see someone fail big than be mediocre. Failure can be the most helpful.
Failure is just a part of life and a big part of this industry. It can be incredibly useful. It seems like the 5 questions proposed in the article are kind of no-brainers. They aren't proposing anything new. Most of the questions are important not only for failures, but also for events that could be considered successes. Just because something doesn't fail doesn't mean it shouldn't be improved. It seems like these are just good questions for the end of any project regardless of it's reception. No process will ever be flawless. It seems like this article is not just about failure, but about general improvement for future projects.
I think that evaluation after a failure is one of the most important steps that is most often forgotten. If you do not learn from your mistakes, there is no way to make it better.
Also, by establishing a list of questions helps to make the process a more established thing which in turn will help to compare experiences with a standard marker
I really agree with the people who have been saying these questions really are obvious. I always check the articles like this, hoping to find some good advice and always end up disappointed. Maybe I should ask myself these questions? But really I think it is more important to ask these kind of questions after a successful project. There is always something that could have been improved upon. Failure is often a better learning experience that success. When always faced with successes a person can forget to keep asking themselves these things and get egotistical; that is when they are in a position to experience the greatest failure because they are no longer accurately evaluating their own work. At the same time I think I am sometimes to hard on myself and it helps to remember that failure isn't the end of the world but merely another learning experience. It helps my to think that I didn't fail but learned how not to do something.
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