What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

Wow! Really? One of the themes of the coaching world is: Celebrate Failure!

In this New York Times article Paul Tough points out that the students that stay in college are not necessarily the super smart, super students.  It turns out it is the student that has exceptional character strengths (e.g. optimism and persistence and social intelligence).  These are the students who can recover from a set back, a bad grade, etc. and be resolved to do better next time…”the kids who make it are the ones who can tell themselves: ‘I can rise above this little situation.  I’m O.K. Tomorrow is a new day.'”

How do kids get this? FAILURE.  We need hardship to build this resilience.  “The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure, and in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything.”-Dominic Randolph

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Categories: Coaching, Parenting
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