Failure

June 10, 2023

Feeling really good today <3

So I'm obsessed with failure. Probably not the way you're thinking, I don't go watching hours of Epic Fail compilations. I'm obsessed with failure because I want people to succeed. But again, probably not the way you think. I don't want to demonize failure.

Because going through failure is how you succeed.

There's this concept in exercise science (basically anything applied physiology) of the "point of failure"--the level of exertion at which a muscle starts failing. Basically, you work the muscles to the edge of that point of failure, and then you give them rest. Not even necessarily for very long, it could mark the end of that set or the end of the session. But working past that point of failure is where injuries start happening, so you need to know it, and respect it--but you also need to push to it in order to grow your strength.

You cannot learn a new skill without failure. You have to try and not succeed in order to push, and ultimately expand, your limits. Working only within what you can successfully do the first time prevents growth. So we need to allow failure.