As long as you take an educated risk, whatever that may be for you or your students, you should not lose what is most valuable to you. If anything, you will gain experience and a sense of creative freedom. Anytime I have taken an educated risk, I find myself feeling a little anxious but mostly exhilarated. If ever I fail in my recent endeavors or new ideas, I do it knowing I did my homework to prepare, so the worst case scenario would have me coming out of the experience learning something new by taking 1 of the following action steps:
- Modification (adjust/edit according to what I learned)
- New Direction (pivot or follow a new idea based on the experience)
Reflect on what worked? And Why? ______________________________________________________________________________
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List what did not go as planned? Explain why. ______________________________________________________________________________
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| What Worked 😊 | What Failed ☹ |
MODIFICATION
Remember that failure has gotten a really bad reputation. Failure is a useful tool that teaches us. Wasn’t it Thomas Edison that had the famous quote about how many times he failed in trying to construct an electric lightbulb? I believe he said that he didn’t fail; he just found over 10,000 ways that the bulb wouldn’t work. I love the positive attitude. Now, do we think Edison got frustrated, almost gave up, had bad days going through that process? Yes.
Sometimes we just need to reconsider there are other options or determine what truly is the desired outcome. This might be a standard that you want your students to exceed or meet. It might be your first attempt at leadership experience.
NEW DIRECTION
We should realize that the risk we took failed; however, if it had been thought out, it was worth it. Don’t just take a risk for the sake of risk taking. These are educated risks (ER).
If you really weren’t happy with the experience or outcome, it is probably a good idea to cross it out and start all over. Don’t fret! My guess is that you learned something from the experience, so let’s start there. I personally don’t like the motto that failure is not an option. It most certainly is an option, and you need to remember that every time you try something new.
I rather think of failure as a key to success which is something legendary basketball player Michael Jordan believes and lives. Still don’t believe in learning from failure? Think about Michael Jordan as a young kid in school. In fact, picture him at your school. I guarantee most of you have students right now with that dream of being the next greatest NBA player. Do you see that student being 100% successful? All the time? Of course not. Everyone has to learn. Everyone has to stumble at some point.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.” – Michael Jordan
There is a professional culture that does not always give educators liberty to take educated risks. I implore you to try to take some small risks if you have excitement and ideas that could improve your professional development and/or students’ growth. At the very least, you can find small opportunities for excitement by trying something new (that’s happening anyway right now in 2020). Why not be passionate about it as opposed to feeling forced to try new things? The worst that can happen is you will fail…and then you will learn from it.
See You Real Soon,
Erin
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