Rethinking Failure – It Is Not Black and White
Failure is a harsh word. But it is often the word we associate with a scenario that doesn’t turn out in the successful, happy, satisfying way that we had originally planned. But I don’t think looking at something as a failure is really helpful.
If something isn’t a success, we often jump to the opposite and call it a failure. But rarely are projects and activities so clearly black and white. In reality, most things we engage in fall along a spectrum. To delineate anything that does not hit the ultimate success mark as a failure is just not fair. Failure is all about negative connotations. Along with that comes lots of negative emotions – neither of which is usually helpful in the long run. How much better would it be to grade our goals and objectives on a scale, looking at each element and component individually instead of lumping the whole thing into a single pass/fail mark?