This was originally a Twitter thread, but I wanted to capture it in a more search-friendly way.
Pull up a seat for a moment, I want to talk to you all about “Fail Mountain”.
When my kiddo was little, like many people on the spectrum, he would get very frustrated when things didn’t work out. He’s very sharp, so a lot of things came easy — so the hard stuff stood out, it felt *worse*. I explained it to him like this.
“Look, kiddo, sometimes — often even — things will *not* go right on your first try, you won’t be able to reach that goal. But, from trying one thing and failing, you have gained a Stone of Knowledge.
Some goals or skills are not too far out of reach, but others are going to be waaaaay up high. Each failed attempt, each Stone of Knowledge you add makes the pile a little bigger, and you can climb it to reach higher.
Just like any mountain of stones, you have to build it much wider than tall, so some things take a LOT of failures to get it right, and you can choose if reaching that goal is worth the time to make all the stones you’ll need.
So, think carefully about the goals you’re trying to reach and the time it’ll take you to reach them. Sometimes it’ll be foggy and you won’t be sure. Sometimes, things go wrong and the pile will collapse.
But, if it’s a goal that really matters to you, then build and build. You’ll find that success is often at the top of a big Fail Mountain.”
Have your own story about climbing Fail Mountain or wanting to see some of the great additions people replied to? Join the conversation. 😎
