Is it better to ignore your failings?

[entropie]

depends on if you want to excel in many things or only a few things. As a rule of thumb tho one should never ignore a failing, they are there so we can learn from them. my latin teacher kept saying: one time is no time, two times is one time too much

 

[Silveresque]

I think "ignoring your failings" could be interpreted in different ways. Does it mean "ignore your weaknesses" or "ignore your past mistakes"? Ignoring your weaknesses is not a good idea because if you don't learn from them you will never grow. But ignoring your past mistakes doesn't sound like too bad an idea. I think too often people get caught up in their mistakes of the past and can't let go to move on. Don't wallow in shame when you make a mistake, but don't lose sight of your potential for growth and improvement.

 

[William K]

Some pretty good advice already. What I'd like to add is that gaining depth vs breadth of knowledge/skill/talent is usually good but there is always a danger that you may become too specialized and unable to cope with sudden changes.

As for failings (i.e. past mistakes), use them as a motivation to improve and learn from it. But don't wallow and use it as an excuse for saying you can't do something, or believing that you're a failure.

 

[jimrckhnd]

I think "ignoring your failings" could be interpreted in different ways. Does it mean "ignore your weaknesses" or "ignore your past mistakes"? Ignoring your weaknesses is not a good idea because if you don't learn from them you will never grow. But ignoring your past mistakes doesn't sound like too bad an idea. I think too often people get caught up in their mistakes of the past and can't let go to move on. Don't wallow in shame when you make a mistake, but don't lose sight of your potential for growth and improvement.

I agree. Learning to forgive yourself for past mistakes is an important skill. When I was younger I used to flagellate myself for mistakes that often were fairly minor. It was neither productive nor healthy. I found the simple exercise of holding those things that are embarrassing, shameful, etc. up in your mind, examining them, determining what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again to be very useful. That last part of the exercise being “I will never beat myself up over this again”. Sometimes it takes a few tries but for me anyways it does work.

 

[Chiharu]

No. We shouldn't ignore them so much as refrain from DWELLING on them.

 

[mrcockburn]

No. I prefer to focus on my failings so that I'm constantly aware of limitations and errors.

 

[Orangey]

I think it would be pretty dangerous to ignore your own failings.

 

[Ginkgo]

It depends on whether you can learn from your failings easily. If you can't, then you're wasting your time and energy.

If you can, quickly, then you will grow from facing them.

So long as you don' fail at solving those problems, you won't chase your tail like a borderline retarded cat.

Furthermore, it depends on what sort of problem solving skills are necessary for your particular failing, and whether you're capable in that arena.

Everyone has their hang ups.

 

[uncommonentity]

To me it's benefical to be an all around balanced character than a one trick pony. The devil is in the details. If you don't cover all weak points you will be shadow of the colossus'd. Take some time to step outside your body and view yourself through the eyes of the enemy once in a while. Patch your firmware and become your very own defense technician. Becoming elite in a single subject may bring you money and success but never defense when it comes to the point your main purpose becomes irrelevant as times change. Refuse to be a human VHS tape.

 

[miss fortune]

it's good to recognize your weak points so that you can find a way to overcome them... for instance, I KNOW that I suck at saying no and being mean to people because I naturally like people for some strange reason... therefore I've made sure to have a right hand man at work who is GOOD at saying no if necessary... he's good at what I suck at, therefore he has a guaranteed job there unless he majorly fucks up on something

there's a difference between recognizing your failures and feeling like a failure because of your failures... in one you are just recognizing what needs work and then fixing it in some manner, in another you are dwelling on it and tearing yourself down because of it. The former is necessary if you want to succeed at something, the later is very detrimental.