The Grace of Failure

You may have heard about skier Mikaela Shriffin’s blowout in her best events, even if you haven’t been watching the Olympics. Since then, she’s been accosted by media, asking her what went wrong and how she feels. The other night she got my attention when she admitted to being a failure in an interview, but then she went on to say something more surprising. Because of her unexpected performance at the Olympics, she had learned that human beings can be surprisingly kind. Later, she tweeted that “The girl who failed could also fly” after a successful training run. 

This is the grace of failure. In fact, failure is often a prerequisite for learning. In this case, if Mikaela Shiffrin succeeded, she may have experienced the joy of winning and the adulation of skiing fans, but she might have missed out on the more important lesson of failure. And maybe her ability to bounce back from her loss was fueled by discovering human kindness. 

What I learned from Mikaela Shiffrin’s failure is that there may be a diamond just waiting to be uncovered when I fail. Maybe, instead of seeking perfection and success I can hope to learn something and develop my capacity for resilience. Thanks Mikaela, your failure on one of the largest stages in the world has been a lesson for us all.