Learning from Success
Many times we hear coaches and parents explain the value in learning from failure and poor performances. Logically, this makes sense to us so we evaluate ourselves and what happened, make whatever adjustments we think are needed, and push forward aiming to be successful in our next endeavor. Solid logic, solid system.. it works. However, my question(s) for you today are:
1. Why do we wait until we fail to learn about ourselves and our performance?
2. Can we learn from success?
3. Why don’t we take the time to learn from our success?
Before I share my answers with you, take a moment to work through those questions in your head.
I feel like I’m back in grad school writing discussion posts (#IYKYK).:
We wait until we fail to learn about ourselves and our processes because that’s how we have been trained all our lives. Success is awesome.. failure is something to learn from.. That’s the directive we’ve received most of our lives and so we simply operate on that order. A majority of us don’t see equal learning opportunities from both success and failure. We operate under the skewed notion that failure provides a more valuable learning opportunity than success. But does it really or is that just how we’ve been trained to view it?
Uh yeah.. give me a reason why you couldn’t! I’d almost argue that success is a more valuable learning opportunity than failure. What I’ve seen is that most athletes are aware of what things lead to poor performances. In large part they understand what breaks down in their game. On the other hand, not all athletes truly understand what all happens and factors into those games that they play well in. Far less athletes have an understanding of their success process. And I can say this because when I ask athletes what contributed to a poor performance, they rattle off like 10 things that they struggled with and did poorly whereas when I ask an athlete what factored into their success I often get, “I don’t know I just played well”. And there you have it right there.. A totally new opportunity for that athlete to learn more about themself and their success process! Athletes know how they fail. Help them better understand how they succeed.
Simple, we don’t take the time to learn from our success because we don’t understand the value of it. We believe that if we are succeeding everything must be going well and we don’t see a point in taking a deep dive into understanding what contributed to our success. The thinking is that if we have the results we want, who cares about the process (Yes, I cringed typing that). The problem with that thinking is that you are missing out on an incredible opportunity to better understand how you succeed and perform at a high level. If you want to grow and progress as an athlete and as a person don’t miss those opportunities!
So as you go forward keep learning from your mistakes, poor performances, and “failures”, but when you perform well and succeed, take the time to learn from those moments too. Success is an incredible learning opportunity. Take advantage of those moments to better understand how you succeed!