Recovery is a dangerous concept. It can destroy a career, hinder risk-taking, and paralyze you with fear. The dictionary says recovery is:
- Return to a normal state.
- Process of regaining control of something that was lost.
The thing is, learning is not about recovery. When we fail, it’s usually because our previous normal state was flawed. It’s usually because something that was lost needs to be lost. The attempt to recover the normal state is futile (in most cases).
Failure is essential for learning – whether first-person failure or in the third-person. But the key is not recovery – it’s embracing.
Embracing the new…the new paradigm, the new idea, the new feedback, the new reality. The learning is not in recovery, but in letting go and embracing the shift.