Thoughts on failure and learning

“Failure is information—we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, I’m a problem solver, and I’ll try something else.’” -Carol Diener

What's your attitude about failure?

Infants and children are constantly trying things they don't yet know how to do.

What can we gain from understanding a child’s approach to motor learning?

If they don't succeed, instead of seeing it as a failure, infants adjust their goal slightly, or shift their focus to something else. This adaptive mindset helps them to be nature’s most potent learners; by not dwelling in failure, infants and children learn to succeed.

In Feldenkrais® and Anat Baniel Method® movement lessons, when we are not able to accomplish an action to our satisfaction, we learn that the process is not over. We take the experience as useful information.

Failure is not a dead end.

Like a child who encounters difficulty, instead of giving up or sacrificing our comfort by straining, we explore previously unseen options. We remain open to the possibility that our perceived limitations are not set in stone. In this process we discover that we are capable of much more than we had believed ourselves to be.

When we move beyond what we thought was possible for ourselves we simultaneously learn to recognize and support the capacity of children in our lives to master this process for themselves.