Hi Sweetie - This is the message I needed to fill my beautiful, sensitive daughters' heads with since they were young - after it was pointed out to me that they viewed failure with such contempt that they were afraid to try anything new. They helped me learn that I was inadvertently passing destructive messages to them regarding "screwing up," or "being wrong." It was so refreshing to learn a new way. Then, as God would have it, a 3rd grade teacher stressed these thoughts in her classroom, reminding the kids with posters hanging on her desk, for instance, about how Babe Ruth struck out an extraordinary number of times - more than he hit the ball -- or about how Thomas Edison failed at inventing the light bulb about 999 times (not really sure of the #). When asked about his failures, he said there were no failures. Each time he made a light bulb that did not work, he said he now knew how NOT to make the next one.
We grow in shame and fear, I believe, when we are so hard on ourselves that we beat ourselves up about our mistakes and failures. We grow in love, tolerance and courage when we can accept our own flaws and mistakes -- and we pass love and confidence onto our children when we are accepting and loving of ourselves. Love, Gerri
Who is it that said you always pass failure on the way to success. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Sweetie - This is the message I needed to fill my beautiful, sensitive daughters' heads with since they were young - after it was pointed out to me that they viewed failure with such contempt that they were afraid to try anything new. They helped me learn that I was inadvertently passing destructive messages to them regarding "screwing up," or "being wrong." It was so refreshing to learn a new way. Then, as God would have it, a 3rd grade teacher stressed these thoughts in her classroom, reminding the kids with posters hanging on her desk, for instance, about how Babe Ruth struck out an extraordinary number of times - more than he hit the ball -- or about how Thomas Edison failed at inventing the light bulb about 999 times (not really sure of the #). When asked about his failures, he said there were no failures. Each time he made a light bulb that did not work, he said he now knew how NOT to make the next one.
ReplyDeleteWe grow in shame and fear, I believe, when we are so hard on ourselves that we beat ourselves up about our mistakes and failures. We grow in love, tolerance and courage when we can accept our own flaws and mistakes -- and we pass love and confidence onto our children when we are accepting and loving of ourselves. Love, Gerri