Celebrate Falls and Fails

This weekend I headed out on a run with the dog and the boys on their bikes. It was a wet, rainy day in Oregon and as I turned onto one of the mossy trails KK followed and had a pretty epic wipe out. Considering he just recovered from a broken wrist he protected that and caught his whole fall on his ribs. After a quick assessment to make sure he was ok, I immediately started congratulating him on his fall. “Nice roll!” I said, “Way to cover that arm”. High fives all around for making that one look awesome.

My kids are such perfectionists that often getting them to do anything new can be a complete test of patience. They need continual reinforcing that they are doing great at learning, that they are getting through the hard part. Often I remind them of things like “remember when this hill was so hard to bike up?” or “remember when this slope scared you?”. Failure is something they fear and yet it is so much a part of life. That job interview that resulted in a decline. That presentation that didn’t land with a client. That college exam with a lower than expected grade. Getting over a fail is so important in life and teaching perseverance can happen in the smallest moments.

To teach them that failure isn’t bad I make sure to celebrate falls and fails. Being out in nature gives us great opportunities to experience both.

The outdoors can be such a great teacher and gives opportunities to have to push past the comfort zone, have moments where you fall, and gives you opportunities to just push yourself and learn. A lot of mental growth happens when kids get to play outside.