Why is it so easy to fail at some things and so difficult to face failure at others?

As an art teacher, Matt Appling has seen his students struggle with the idea of failing at an art project, but at the same time most 3rd graders have been willing enough to fail at a round of Super Mario Bros for decades! Even more interestingly, his youngest students (he teaches Kindergarten through 8th grade) seem much more willing to fail that the older ones. What’s happening to us as we grow up?

As we grow older, we become impaired by some of the lessons we “learn.” Failure is bad. Success is good. I should try not to fail and if failure seems like a likely option, I should not do that thing.

But this fear of failure can paralyze us and keep some of the best successes from happening. This short piece, taken from Matt’s book, Life after Art, will remind you of the value of failing that you somehow knew when you were younger—and will help you recapture that freedom once again.

Moody Collective Portions are short pieces of content taken from our full-length books. Our goal is to introduce our readers to a complete idea in a brief, concise, and inexpensive format. Most portions will take about 20 minutes to read.