Hello, Dr. Laura.
I believe the lessons one learns from failing helps us in our daily lives. One of the parenting skills I learned from my father and mother was to encourage your children to make "age-appropriate" decisions. There were six children in my family, and I would expect all six of us would agree that being allowed to make decisions at an early age benefited us greatly as adults. Because we were allowed to make decisions, we quickly learned that with decision-making, there came consequences. By experiencing consequences, we quickly learned that consequences could be positive or negative.
By being allowed to make decisions, my siblings and I were given the opportunity to fail, and we did fail many, many times. Failing helped to shape who we became as adults. Failing taught us that it was not an "end-all". There is life after failure. Failing helped build our self-confidence.
Norman Vaughan, an explorer who lived to be 100, is known for giving this advice, "Dream big and dare to fail". It served him well, and I try to take his advice to heart even today at the age of 59.
Patty
