#4 Failure and Success

Has this lesson changed your view of failure and success in school and in life? How? What words of advice would you offer to someone who feels like a failure?

What does growth mindset mean to you? Why is this an important attribute to cultivate? How can teachers and adults in your life help you create a growth mindset?

Failure and success are factors that can be worked upon. Someone who never tries may never fail, but they also will never succeed. People often think of failure as a negative event. I have met people who consider failure to be their biggest fear. This has never made sense to me. It is difficult to determine one's definition of failure. Is it the way they feel after completing a task? The way they make others feel? Regardless, failure is a necessary component in achieving success. Acknowledging and being thankful for failure is the only way to improve, grow, and learn.

I often view a growth mindset as a willingness to take criticism and improve. Being able to listen to people's advice and learn from them is critical in reaching towards success. This lesson can be learned from the story of Austin's butterfly. Austin may have never been able to see where he could improve without the criticism from his classmates. I often try to reflect this mindset in my own life. Not only is a willingness to take criticism important when completing a task or a project, but it is also a key part in becoming a better human. The only way you can know how your words and actions impact others is by listening to them.

Adults who are given the opportunity to determine varying levels of success in kids' work need to work on cultivating this growth mindset. Teachers in particular have a lot of power in what their student's deem to be failure or success. Simply writing an 'F' at the top of a student's paper and expecting them to move on is not the best way to help them learn. It is the job of a teacher to teach, not to place a number on a student and deem it as their value. To help young people create a growth mindset, adults need to reflect one in themselves. As mentors show their observers that failure is necessary and positive, children and young adults in the world will be more motivated to improve.