The Art of Failure

Is there anything discussed in this article that you can relate to? I really loved Janai Brugger's interview, she spoke about her career as an opera singer, the challenges she faced and finding strength in weakness. Brugger said "Failure is when I’m not 100 percent focused or giving it my all, and if I don’t learn something from the experience. There’s always something to learn. If I don’t allow myself that, then I feel that I failed.", there were relatable comments by some of the other interveiwees/artists but I appreciated Bruggers comment that failure only happens when you dont try and give it your all. Theres always a learning experience tucked away in each "failure", and I think when it comes to creative pursuits the idea that "we are our own worst critic" really fits with this "fear of failure". Who decides that something failed, really? Is it a personal decision to deem an artwork or performance a failure? I think we are likely to judge ourselves much more critically than anyone else judges us, so "failure" only has as much power as you give it. 

Do you believe that taking risks and pushing boundaries is important to the creative process? Why or why not? Taking risks is definitely important for the creative process, to learn something outside of your comfort zone or take on a new media/interest in an effort to grow as an artist. I think its easy to stay in the spaces we already know, there's less worry of judgement and a guarantee at success but I think the challenges we face are equally as important.

Do you experience fear of failure? When? How do you think it has impacted you positively or negatively? All. The. Time. In school, on a run, making dinner. I think everyone experiences the fear of failure and anyone that says they dont is probably lying (or theyre just very lucky). As a person with anxiety sometimes the fear of failure keeps me from doing things completely, though its gotten better with age. I went to college right after I graduated from high school and I was so worried to have the wrong answer in class or make the wrong choice about my future that I failed two semesters in a row and I'm still paying for it now as I try to recover from zeros in my GPA from 15 years ago 😣

How do you think you can support your students as their teacher when they encounter the "fear of failure"? Its hard when you  want or expect to be good at something right away, and when youre not and realize you need to stick with it to push through the discomfort I think oftentimes progress and success is easy to come by. Setting appropriate but challenging standards in important, and helping students realize their owns strengths to help them build confidence in and out of the classroom.