A few weeks ago, we posted a TED Talk about “Grit”—the stuff that keeps pushing us to do the stuff we want to do. Last week I read an article from The Brilliant Report (a great source for discussions on learning) titled When to let learners struggle which talks about a study published in the Journal of Learning Sciences regarding the importance of failure throughout the learning process. Adults will encounter countless “failures” throughout their professional careers. By teaching young adults how to critically look at difficult situations and guiding them towards developing successful solutions, they’ll be better able to handle uncomfortable situations as they make their way through later academic and professional careers.

Please share your thoughts and experiences with failures. Can you remember your first professional “blip”? Something that, at the time, made made you want to crawl under a rock and never come out? How did you recover and did that process help you in later situations?