“You won’t be considered a failure until you begin to blame.”
– John Wooden, legendary coach
There are many versions of this quote out there, all attributed to the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden.
Failure is a polarizing word, to be sure. So, then, should “blame” be.
Blame sounds a lot like “excuse” to me. I no likey excuses, and I suspect you no likey them either! I seek a world in which we’re willing to fail more frequently, because we’re trying to find more ways to grow. I dream of and try to build a reality wherein we make mistakes of aggression, because in doing so, we raise the bar. We grow. We’ll get stronger all the way through, as long as we avoid the temptation to point fingers, to assign blame.
In her book, Mindset, Dr. Carol Dweck talks about how the “fixed” mindset makes us afraid of failing, and leads to us blindly assigning blame, while the “growth” mindset commits us to seeking to learn and grow, to get stronger by constantly raising the bar on ourselves.
Think about that; if we raise the bar on ourselves, no one needs to raise it for us! The really encouraging point that Dr. Dweck believes and proves is that the growth mindset can be taught and, as such, can be learned.
John Wooden was a teacher, and he had a growth mindset. Even after his passing, books on his teachings still sell briskly. His growth mindset lives on, and accordingly, people still go to him for advice — on how best to grow.
Which mindset do you want to have? What can you do, and what will you do to learn to have a growth mindset?
How much of a difference will that make?
Tom Gelin says
I likey this post.