Big idea
I read about this failure question today in the Sunday New York Times. The author’s father would ask his kids the title question often. And when they didn’t come up with any failures, he would be disappointed. Presumably because without any failures there weren’t any lessons to learn and therefore no growth. The father obviously wanted his kids to fail and learn from their experiences. Personally, I think it’s a great idea. So, let’s play: How did you fail this week? Feel free to post your comments.
How Vas failed this week
This past week I mowed a low-profile lawn patch on a gorgeous sunny fall day. It was literally my last lawn piece before finishing and moving on to other tasks, like line trimming and leaf pick-up. So, I ran my heavy self-propelled over the lawn and immediately regretted it. Can you see why?
As a Red Seal journeyman horticulturist with many seasons of experience, I expect more from myself. I hate working like a robot. Clearly, I should have seen the soggy lawn patch and I should have stayed away from it. Using a line edger would have been a better option; skipping this lawn patch altogether was the best option.
Luckily, this is a low-profile lawn, hidden behind cedar hedges (Thuja occidentalis) and shrubs. Nobody wants to see a lawn with muddy wheel tracks. It looks awful. Leaving it alone would have been better, even if it was shaggy.
And that was my failure last week: not reading the lawn conditions properly and producing substandard lawn care results. The lesson is obvious: don’t work like a robot, read the conditions and produce good results. It’s time to focus more; sloppy work can’t be tolerated.
Conclusion
How did YOU fail this week? Feel free to share your failures and the lessons you learned from them. Now that I’m older, I find failures annoying; they no longer freak me out and cause me to lose sleep. But this muddy lawn patch will be on mind for a while.
