For this week, I learned a pattern called Learn How You Fail. Through this pattern, the author tells me that everyone is not perfect; and no one can avoid failure. “Failure is inevitable. It happens to everybody sooner or later”, he said. Moreover, the author also suggests to the readers how to deal with their failures or how to reduce the consequences of the next failures. First, you need to identify the reasons which might cause you fail, then instead of wasting your time to feel self-pity about those failures, you should try to resolve it. Gaining self-knowledge about “the patterns, conditions, habits, and behaviors that lead you to failure” is one the most important solutions that can help you become aware of your boundaries and limitations. When your boundaries and limits are found, you should face and accept the fact that you cannot be good at everything. There is still something you are not good at. Your awareness and your accurate self-assessment will allow you to make conscious choices to overcome your failures. There are two options suggested, that is, between working harder to push your boundaries or cutting your losses by accepting your limitations.
In my opinion, this pattern is helpful for all apprentices; because I agree with the author’s opinion that failures happen to everybody sooner or later. That means most of apprentices including myself cannot avoid failures when walking on the long road of the careers. Therefore, exposing with this pattern in advance can help me know what I should do if I fail. I should learn from my failures, learn what causes me fail, learn about where my boundaries or limitations are, learn how to assess myself accurately, learn to accept my imperfection, and eventually learn to make a decision to overcome those failures.
However, if I were asked what my decision would be if I failed, I would choose to put more effort into pushing my boundaries instead of accepting my limitations. It is not because I cannot accept my limitations, but it is because my definition of the word “failure” differs from its standard meaning. According to my own dictionary, failure means that I did not put in enough effort to achieve my goal. However, I believe that as time goes on, at some point, my own dictionary will be updated if there is a situation makes me accept that sometimes effort cannot change the result, then “cutting your losses” is a better choice.
From the blog CS@Worcester – T's CSblog by tyahhhh and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.