No one likes to make mistakes. No one wants to fail. But real growth doesn’t happen when everything goes perfectly according to plan. Real growth happens in the stumble. In the “uh-oh.” The moments that don’t go right are likely those that move you farthest forward. Permission to fail? Granted!
Take chances, make mistakes.
That's how you grow.
Pain nourishes your courage.
You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
— Mary Tyler Moore
Watch "Keep Stumbling" on the Educators Among Us Podcast
Uh oh! The speed of response to that exclamation depends on the situation.
If it comes from the backseat after passing them a chocolate ice cream cone, then it's likely a quick maneuver to park and grab as many napkins as possible.
Sometimes encouragement is given as a response because mistakes are part of learning life lessons: Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start over again.
Failure is instruction because that's when some of the best lessons are learned.
Success is stumbling from failure to
failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
— Winston Churchill
Mistakes are the inevitable potholes on the road to discovery and mastery.
Laughing at our mistakes can be useful—not foolish dismal but conscious acknowledgement of our humanity, lack of perfection, and eagerness to learn.
Experience is a convenient name for the oodles of uh ohs we've made before.
Smart people are real about learning from mistakes, and even smarter people learn from the failures of others to gain insights that prevent some experience.
Instruct the wise and they will
be wiser still; teach the righteous
and they will add to their learning.
— Proverbs 9:9
Even educators are allowed to be imperfect—it's where our best stories emerge.
Life is too short and we're too human to carry the futile burden of perfection.
Be kind to colleagues and students as they keep stumbling through their own experiences, even when it gets frustrating—they're still showing up and trying.
Pick them up. Encourage their spirit. Keep believing they can make it through.
The value of a skinned knee is life-changing, and we've got the scars to prove it.
Practice being brave. Yes, you may fail. But you’ll gain wisdom from failures as, enthusiastically, you keep stumbling forward.
Listen to "Keep Stumbling" on the Educators Among Us Podcast
