TRAINING TIP TUESDAY: HOW TO FAIL

There is no getting around it: failure is a necessary component to mastery. We have to learn to climb before we learn to summit, and that takes failing. Plenty of failing. But how do we fail smart? How do we miss the high mark without embedding the bad habits that we are trying to overcome?

Well to start, let’s define “training.” As you may have read here in the past, I view training as separate from repetition. Training is the installation of efficiencies and the removal of inefficiencies.

How do we find those inefficiencies and the places where we might install greater efficiency? By slowly moving through our process and finding them (read that: failing). This is more nuanced than it may seem. If we measure our success by a timer or even by accuracy alone, we might miss a great opportunity to become much better and more efficient.

We have to go looking for the small failures that come together and add up to… falling short of mastery. This takes a keen and focused eye. I often ask someone to watch me and offer feedback. I have a colleague that films himself and analyzes the videos in slow motion. You begin to get the idea: be dedicated to finding the weak spots and enact change in their place.

There is some interesting science emerging about failure as well. I recently ran across some information on a podcast that I frequent (Andrew Huberman’s “Huberman Lab”). He cited a study that set out to define the optimum rate of failure. This is the rate of falling short that encourages the brain to be receptive to new information (neural plasticity, essentially).

What they found was 15% - we need to fail about 15% of the time to keep our brains in a “learning gear.” Pretty interesting stuff. What it means to me is that I need to be very specific about my training process. If I go fast enough that my failure rate starts to edge above that number, my brain begins to leave its optimum failure comfort level and I actually work against myself.

We’ve all done that. It doesn’t create skill. It creates frustration.

We need to fail; we just need to do it in a way that serves the final goal: Mastery.

Be thoughtful, be measured. Find the inefficiencies methodically and turn your failures into a ladder.

Until next time, Train smart… and fail the right way.    

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Author Bio

Duane “Buck” Buckner

After spending 25 years in the USCG, Duane “Buck” Buckner is now the U.S. Director of Training for Aimpoint. The Aimpoint Training Division conducts training courses for military and law enforcement agencies up to the Federal level as well as for the prepared civilian. Buck is widely known for his emphasis on brain psychology as it relates to combat and survival.

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