2022-12-19 Smarter ways to learn from failure 从失败中学习的聪明方法

“失败乃成功之母”。我们都希望能从失败中吸取经验教训，迎接成功。但为什么有时很难从错误中吸取教训？本文就此展开讨论。

词汇：failure 失败

Many of us were told from an early age that, be it at school or in life, “you learn from your mistakes”. But is this actually true?

The short answer is ‘yes’ – failure can be a teachable moment. But learning from our mistakes is, in reality, very hard because we don’t like to fail. It doesn’t feel good, so we react to failure in impulsive and emotional ways, like giving up on a task prematurely, telling ourselves we don’t care whether we succeed, or finding fault with the task itself. This is self-protective, according to Hallgeir Sjåstad, a professor of psychology and leadership at the Norwegian School of Economics. “Most of us want to think of ourselves as competent and capable“, he says, so when we fail “it poses a serious threat to our self-image“.

Fortunately, there is research to suggest that there are some strategies to help us overcome the emotional barriers around failure. One of them is to adopt a third-person perspective. Instead of asking “Why did I fail?”, we could ask “Why did Sam fail?”, for example. Multiple studies by psychologist Ethan Kross at the University of Michigan show that adopting a third-person perspective helps to soften our negative emotional reactions, allowing us to look at failure more objectively.

A second strategy involves offering advice to others who may be in the same position as us. This strategy led to better levels of motivation and academic success in the test groups – involving both adults and children – that were asked to give advice based on their own failures. Professors Eskreis-Winkler, Fishbach and Duckworth found that the satisfaction of helping others “forces people to engage with their experience and what they have learned”. 

The writer Samuel Beckett once said: “fail again, fail better”. But it now seems that we should be saying: “fail again, fail smarter”. Failure is an inevitable part of life, but by learning to overcome the emotional barriers around it, we may find the road to success is a little easier to navigate. 

词汇表

teachable moment 施教时刻，值得学习的时刻
impulsive 冲动的
prematurely 过早地
succeed 成功
find fault with 挑剔，找岔子
self-protective 自我保护的
competent 有能力的
capable 能干的
pose a threat to 对…造成威胁
self-image 自我形象
strategy 策略
overcome 克服
barrier 障碍
adopt a perspective 采用…视角
third-person 第三人称的
soften 缓和
objectively 客观地
in the same position as 处境相同的
motivation 积极性
satisfaction 满足感
engage with 直面
inevitable 不可避免的
navigate 驾驭，穿越

测验与练习

1. 阅读课文并回答问题。

1. True or False? You learn from your mistakes.

2. How does failure pose a threat to our self-image?

3. What kind of barriers do we need to overcome to learn from failure?

4. True or False? A third-person perspective helps us be less emotional about our failures.

5. How can helping others change our perspective on failure?

2. 选择意思恰当的单词或词组来完成下列句子。

1. Mark is so _______! He never thinks before he acts.

self-protective              impulsive              confident                   capable

2. Please stop criticising me! You’re _______ everything I do today.

finding fault with           barriers                 inevitable                  adopting a perspective

3. Pollution _______ the environment and causes global warming.

poses a threat to          overcomes            navigates                  in the same position as

4. She used to be very shy, but she was eventually able to _______ her shyness and is now very outgoing and sociable.

succeed                       soften                    engage with              overcome

5. My father got a lot of _______ from watching my brother take over the family business.  

strategies                     motivation              satisfaction               teachable moments

答案

1. 阅读课文并回答问题。 

1. True or False? You learn from your mistakes.
True. Failure can be a teachable moment.

2. How does failure pose a threat to our self-image?
According to Hallgeir Sjåstad, “most of us want to think of ourselves as competent and capable”. Our failures directly contradict with this idea of ourselves and therefore pose a threat to our self-image.

3. What kind of barriers do we need to overcome to learn from failure?
We need to overcome the emotional barriers around failure before we can learn from it.

4. True or False? A third-person perspective helps us be less emotional about our failures.
True. Adopting a third-person perspective helps to soften our negative emotional reactions, allowing us to look at failure more objectively.

5. How can helping others change our perspective on failure?
Giving advice based on our own failures forces us to engage with our experience and what we have learned. 

2. 选择意思恰当的单词或词组来完成下列句子。

1. Mark is so impulsive! He never thinks before he acts.

2. Please stop criticising me! You’re finding fault with everything I do today.

3. Pollution poses a threat to the environment and causes global warming.

4. She used to be very shy, but she was eventually able to overcome her shyness and is now very outgoing and sociable.

5. My father got a lot of satisfaction from watching my brother take over the family business.