So I have been working on professional development for my teachers for the upcoming school year. We are opening a brand new campus this year and I am leading the group as the campus principal. I have felt honored but also a little terrified at what this means. Here we have a school that has never existed in the past, teachers who barely know each other, and a new set of students and parents coming together for the first time. I feel a great deal of pressure to make sure that this is a positive educational experience for everyone involved. As I approached the school year, I was thinking about what I could tell my teachers to prepare them for what lay ahead of them. The thought that kept coming to my mind what that I should let my failures define me. Let me explain.
I have heard the phrase do not let your failures define you. I have heard people say this as a way of motivating me to overcome a set back look for the success ahead of me. It is not bad advise, but looking back, I feel there is something powerful in looking back on my experiences and my failures or times where I was less than successful. These experiences have shaped my life, built my character, and taught me to be the person I am today.
I have not always been successful in everything I have done. Growing up I loved sports, and at times felt that athletic success was the most important thing in my life. After being cut from the basketball team, repeatedly underperforming in state cross country meets, being benched for the state championship baseball game, and coming in last place in a state track meet, I started to lose confidence in my ability to perform in crucial situations. I was afraid of failure. I lacked the mental toughness to keep going I was challenged. I expected that if I was good, things would be easy. I saw failure as weakness instead of an opportunity to get improve.
Going to college helped a little but not much. I started studying civil engineering. A few c's and d's later, I realized I probably needed to find something different to study. Again once I was challenged, instead of working hard to find a solution, I simply decided that maybe this wasn't for me. I ran away instead of facing my failures.
Things started to change when I served my 2 year LDS mission to Honduras. I was suddenly immersed in a language and culture that was completely foreign to me. If I was ever going to learn to speak Spanish or understand the culture and people around me, I had to try to speak, fail miserably, and let others teach me. For the first time in my life, I learned how to learn, to really learn. I learned how to face a challenge without giving up. I saw failure as an essential step in my learning and success. For the first time, I embraced mistakes and failures. I let this define me and was not afraid of it. And I was successful. I learned Spanish very well. I eventually went on to graduate with a degree in Spanish and have now found something I love.
When I returned from my missionary service, I approached school and life with a new sense of confidence and willingness to put myself out there and embrace my shortcomings. I was not always successful in everything I did. I had job interviews that did not go well. I have faced rejection many times. The difference was, I no longer felt afraid. I knew I would have success in the end. I simply took those opportunities and reflected on ways I could have done better.
As a "Superhero Teacher" it is important that your students fail and see you fail, daily. They can't be afraid of making a mistake. The mistakes and failures in class are the ways that we learn. As teachers, we cannot be afraid of making a mistake. If we are, we are unlikely to try that new approach to teaching we see in trainings, or invest too much in that student who probably isn't going to get it in the end. It's too risky. What if it doesn't work? What if they don't let them help me? Then am I wasting my time? Or are you taking that chance and understanding that while it might not work today, I will get better and eventually find my own way to be the teacher that literally can change lives.
So please, let your failures define you. Use them, daily, to learn and be better. If not, you will ultimately just fail.
