Welcome to the deep dive. Today we're digging
into a really fascinating reflection called embracing
failure, a path to growth and resilience, our
goal. It's really to see how the author shifts
from feeling, you know, totally crushed by setbacks
to actually using them as fuel. How do they make
that leap? It's a great source. And what grabbed
me is that it's not about pretending failure
feels good. Right. The author is very clear.
They say failure felt like failure in the negative
sense, which is honest. Exactly. So that chapter
title, Rejoice in Failure, isn't about, like,
instant happiness. No. So how do we get there?
How do we genuinely turn that disappointment
into, well, into growth? Well, the author reframes
it, doesn't she? It's less about the feeling
of failure and more about what you do with it,
seeing it as data almost. OK, data. Let's unpack
that with this college math example they give.
It's pretty intense. Oh, yeah. Taking the same
required class five times, five semesters. Just
think about that. The perseverance? Hmm, but
also the struggle totally they talk about being
terrified confidence just gone Questioning if
they even deserve to be in college. That's heavy
stuff. It really is and yet they signed up again
Yeah, but here's the key thing. I think what's
that? They didn't just grit their teeth and do
the same thing for the fifth time They changed
how they approached it, right? They actively
looked for different ways to learn, found different
YouTube videos, things like that. Exactly. They
became sort of a strategist for their own learning,
diagnosed why it wasn't working before. Diagnosed,
I like that. And it worked, passed with a B,
eventually. Yeah, and that B wasn't just a grade,
right? It was proof that they figured out how
to crack their own learning code. Essentially,
it's about that process. It's about the how,
not just the what. And that idea, that diagnostic
approach, it carries over into their professional
life, though. It does. They talk about being
out of the workforce for a while. And facing
rejection after rejection, just hearing, no,
Constance. There were times when they could count,
yeah, for jobs they really wanted. So, again,
what did they do differently? How did that earlier
experience maybe inform this? Well, similar pattern,
right. They didn't just send out more resumes
hoping for the best. They got strategic. They
started targeting jobs, yeah that fit, but also
some that seems like a stretch, maybe out of
their league. But crucially, after every single
failed interview, they studied it. Studied the
failure itself. Yes, they ask themselves, you
know, okay what went wrong there? What question
did I fumble? What skill are they really looking
for that maybe I didn't show? So each no became
a lesson, a deliberate feedback loop. Precisely.
It wasn't luck. It was iterative learning. They
even say flat out the job they have now wouldn't
have happened without all those previous failures
forcing them to adapt to get better. Wow. So,
okay, bringing this back to us, to anyone listening.
What's the big message here? It sounds like failure
isn't something to just push through, but something
to actively engage with. I think that's exactly
it. It reminds us that failure is universal.
Everyone encounters it. Every single successful
person, every innovator. They failed. It's part
of the process not a deviation from it, right?
And it sort of challenges how we even define
capable or strong as so we tend to think of strong
people maybe I don't know like an astronaut or
a pop CEO as people who just Don't fail or who
brush it off easily. Yeah, that's the image But
maybe this deep dive suggests that true capability
isn't about avoiding failure It's about mastering
the art of facing it, accepting the disappointment,
sure, but then extracting the lesson. It's about
getting back up, but getting back up smarter.
Exactly. Smarter. It's about learning to navigate
those setbacks intelligently. That's the real
strength. Absolutely. So maybe the next time
you hit a wall, you face that setback. Instead
of just feeling frustrated, perhaps ask, OK,
what's the hidden lesson here? What's this failure
trying to teach me specifically? What's the one
specific new approach, maybe even a small one,
that you can try next based purely on what didn't
work this time? Maybe that's the real way to
embrace it.