You read my title right, we all fail. I challenge you to say this phrase out loud three times before continuing reading this blog post.
“I have failed.”
It’s hard to admit. Even though we have so many successes, it is also important to recognize our failures. Without recognizing our failures, how will we be successful in the future? Anyway, failure is a topic that is taboo to millennials and the Hope College student body. We are so threatened when it comes to failure, and we are so afraid of it. I don’t blame us. I can’t stand to fail. I am always striving to avoid failure and aim for success. But we aren’t perfect. God made us this way for a reason. By making mistakes and failing, we learn how to make things better for the future. Think about this quote for a few seconds.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
He speaks the truth, that Mr. Einstein. Trying new things like classes we are not familiar with, and accepting new challenges (to list some examples) expand our knowledge and growth. If we are always succeeding, how are we to learn anything new? For those of you who are threatened for failure, I am sorry. This information is SCARY. But if we are to be successful, we have to know that we fail sometimes. We are conditioned by our society to strive for perfection and success. Although both of these are great, it becomes unhealthy in that our expectations for ourselves dramatically increase and we punish ourselves if we do not succeed. Just remember, if you don’t as well on a test or assignment, you can learn what to improve upon.
Now, why might I be talking about failure? Easy. On March 27th, Hope College is hosting an event called Failure:Lab. During this time, there will be 6 special guest speakers who will verbalize one of their most significant failures, and will share no lessons. This may, or totally does sound intimidating, but the purpose of Failure:Lab is to start conversations in our community. It also strives to remove the negative stigma on failure. Just remember, no matter how hard we try, we are not perfect. That’s reality.
To learn more about this event, go to Failure:Lab‘s Hope Event website. Ticket information and speakers are listed there. This event is like no other. It is a stepping stone in opening up conversation about failure.
Make sure you spread the word about this event. Tickets are limited! Share this blog post and use the hashtag #HopeFailureLab. Thank you for reading, everyone! Make sure to follow me on Twitter at @HopeMarvin15 or on Instagram at MarvSolberg.