A tradition of the Lenten season is to "give up" a behavior, food, drink, etc as a way to connect with the idea of sacrifice. Although Lent is a Christian tradition, the idea of denying the body to connect to spirit is found in many of the religious traditions, including Islam and Judaism. The idea of Lenten sacrifice was one of many wonderful conversations I had this past weekend while visiting my friend Pamela. We discussed the benefit of committing to practices that are worthwhile instead of sacrificing behavior in the short term. So when I saw the post "40 Things to Give Up for Lent and Beyond", I knew I had found my challenge. My intention is to blog each day about the "thing" to give up. The website makes very specific Lenten connections, while I will be taking a more personal (and perhaps even less spiritual approach). Feel free to share your Lenten sacrifice or focus, as well as comment each day.
- Fear of Failure – You don’t succeed without experiencing failure. Just make sure you fail forward.
Day one. Starting big with these challenges! This is such an important practice in education. It reminds me of Carol Dweck's research on Growth Mindset. Experiencing failure as a learning opportunity and believing that effort does effect outcome is the greatest indicator of success. It's an important foundation to give to our children. Especially important is separating a particular failure from the view that oneself is a failure. This is difficult to do, especially if we are concerned with how others view our failures.
When have you "failed forward"? Were you able to use the experience during the next failure?
