Failure Is Sometimes An Option
Don’t think for a moment I haven’t failed, whether in life or on the firing line. Believe me, I have learned the importance of failure over the years.
Understanding the Lesson
I’m okay with the vast majority of my failures because I choose to look at them as lessons. The hard part is really listening to what the failures tell us. When I’m coaching students during diagnostics the first question I ask is “what did they feel.” I’m not asking about their emotional condition, I’m asking them to listen to their brain and body to understand the importance of failure. What did the failure tell you. This is probably one of the hardest concepts to get across to students. The concept of it’s okay to fail and in fact we should fail often. As long as we are willing to look deeply at the failure and try to understand the lesson.
Fast Failures
We place a high premium on repetitions to help students learn new skills. I ask students to move at a speed they can think their way thorugh the drill. When we approach the target, I ask what did they feel. My hope is they were paying attention and can gleam something as a result of their slowed processing speed. This doesn’t come easily to many so my philosphy is to fail fast. What I mean by this is the faster we can fail, the quicker we can learn. It boils down to being able to perform the same drill or relatively the same drill over and over to the point you start to pick up on the micro level details. By quickly getting to the failure point we are able to make a mental jump to the learning point. This type of thinking applies to life in general, not just on the shooting the range. The school of hard knocks accelerated my growth potential teaching me it was okay to fail. To try and reach the next step, but stumble in the process.
Failing Forward
Growing more comfortable with the idea of failing, we shift the mental focus to how does this failure lead to success. This concept leads to a failing forward mentality. Allowing students to embrace their own learning cycle. Some will learn faster than others, requiring less mistakes. Others will take more mistakes to truly begin their learning cycle. Nothing in this world will be achieveable without a little risk taking. There is a balance we all need to seek, right at the point of healthy risk taking. Being comfortable taking these risks to experience the lesson is key. There is a big difference between letting loose in a semi-controlled manner to complete and utter chaos.
Failing Often
Adults learn differently. They have several self-imposed barriers that prevent them from reaching new levels. Failures impact us twice as much as successes. Which is why as humans we are happy staying in the comfort zone. The thrill of victory pales to the agnony of defeat. There is little gained by staying in the comfort zone. Life is best experienced on the edges. In our classes there are standards all must achieve. What so many students don’t learn until it is too late is the importance of failure. Fail early, fail fast, and fail forward to reach new heights.
Getting to the point of getting comfortable being uncomfortable has taken me years to master. But, I feel the most alive and accomplished when I’m on the outer fringes of my comfort zone.
