Failing. Falling.
Interesting how changing one letter in the word "failing" to "falling" doesn't seem to entirely change its meaning. Failure is often equated with a downward pull. "Down in the dumps" so goes an idiom. But what if failing was made consciously for the sake of inching you uphill instead?
This is the idea that Joshua Foer is challenging viewers to think about in this presentation on The 99%.
A lot of us often come to a point in our professional lives where we've become comfortable with a routine. You have mastered a set of motions with a predictable outcome. You are not getting worse at it nor are you getting any better. You are not awesome at it either. But, don't you want to be? Or, if you don't want to be awesome at what you're doing regularly, why not learn something new? And don't just take up a new thing, but learn to be really good at it. Joshua Foer tells us that, one way you can become really good at something is to FAIL. Not just fail, but consciously make yourself suck at something and study how you do it.
It's a very radical idea because, come on, who wants to fail? No one gets rewarded for being awful (duh). You've probably heard the saying "learn from your mistakes" but, how many of us really do and do so analytically? I'm intrigued by the idea of setting myself up to fail or do the wrong thing with my full knowledge; pushing beyond the limits in a calculated manner and then observing the outcome with the intention of learning and understanding. It reminds me of the time I chose to take a wrong turn into unfamiliar roads because I wanted to know where they go.
Want to learn more about this unconventional approach? Watch this video with me.
Interesting how changing one letter in the word "failing" to "falling" doesn't seem to entirely change its meaning. Failure is often equated with a downward pull. "Down in the dumps" so goes an idiom. But what if failing was made consciously for the sake of inching you uphill instead?
This is the idea that Joshua Foer is challenging viewers to think about in this presentation on The 99%.
A lot of us often come to a point in our professional lives where we've become comfortable with a routine. You have mastered a set of motions with a predictable outcome. You are not getting worse at it nor are you getting any better. You are not awesome at it either. But, don't you want to be? Or, if you don't want to be awesome at what you're doing regularly, why not learn something new? And don't just take up a new thing, but learn to be really good at it. Joshua Foer tells us that, one way you can become really good at something is to FAIL. Not just fail, but consciously make yourself suck at something and study how you do it.
It's a very radical idea because, come on, who wants to fail? No one gets rewarded for being awful (duh). You've probably heard the saying "learn from your mistakes" but, how many of us really do and do so analytically? I'm intrigued by the idea of setting myself up to fail or do the wrong thing with my full knowledge; pushing beyond the limits in a calculated manner and then observing the outcome with the intention of learning and understanding. It reminds me of the time I chose to take a wrong turn into unfamiliar roads because I wanted to know where they go.
Want to learn more about this unconventional approach? Watch this video with me.
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