It took me all of 14 days (minus weekends, holidays, and three days of snow) to reach my tipping point and fail at teaching. Like, smack-down-the-middle, no-way-around-it fail. It sucked, a lot. In fact it still sucks, a lot. I also didn’t handle it very well. Instead of listening to what my supervising teacher said, I did the exact opposite. You see, my biggest failure today was not the epic figurative face plant in the classroom, it was that I was so caught up in my ways and looking like the hero, that I totally and completely forgot to listen to the people around me. I forgot to ask for help. When the task wasn’t something I wanted to do, I forgot that sometimes we do things, not because they make us feel great, but because that’s the way to our goals. That’s the way I, and the students I have the honor of teaching, learn.
The past few weeks I have driven myself to the point of utter insanity not to fail and I can totally see why. Failure doesn’t feel so great. But I am also so thankful to have people around me who allow me to fall. I’m not saying that I am now the expert of failure, but I am saying that failure should be just as much a part of the process as those really big moments. It’s the failures, not the successes that show us who we really are.
Where are you free falling in life? How can you use the supports around you to reach your full potential?
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