I Decided to Think 'It's Good I Failed Early'
Ah, shoot.
Actually, no, it's not shot.
'? What on earth?'
you might be thinking.
I forgot to lock the storage shed for the baseball team.
I had curry with my wife, daughter, and son, and the moment they fell asleep and I thought, 'Alright, time to write a note,' I opened my smartphone.
I remembered.
I had come home without locking the shed.
Since I'm an officer for my daughter's baseball team this year, I have to open and close the storage shed.
So, I went to lock it.
The practice field is 10 minutes away by car.
A youth baseball field at night.
Sure enough, the shed door was unlocked.
Just to be safe, I checked inside the shed.
There were no signs of it being ransacked.
Though, my current appearance is probably at a level that would get me reported (lol).
Relieved for now, I locked the door.
It's depressing to think someone might point it out to me tomorrow.
I've always had a strong sense of responsibility (if it were truly strong, I wouldn't have forgotten to lock the door, though).
When I was in the first year of junior high, in a class survey asking 'Who is the most trusted person?', I was the runaway winner (by the way, 'dantotsu' is an abbreviation for 'danzen top,' so the expression 'dantotsu ichi-i' is the same as saying 'the pain of a stomach ache.' No, that doesn't matter).
Reasons included things like 'has a strong sense of responsibility.'
Well, after seeing the results of that survey in December, I was on cloud nine from January to March (I want to write an article about that someday too).
When I ask myself, 'Do I have a strong sense of responsibility?', it's really that I hate being blamed by others.
That's why I'm careful not to fail.
However, I'm surprisingly scatterbrained, so I fail every day.
I try to tell myself, 'Well, I'm human, so I'm going to fail.'
When I give advice at school, students, especially those at prep schools, say, 'I don't want to fail.'
I think, 'It's unavoidable to fail,' but they probably hate being blamed by others too.
Also, they probably hate themselves for failing.
So, what should one do?
1. Consider whether you will be blamed by others
2. Try to think 'It's good I failed early'
1. Consider whether you will be blamed by others
Surprisingly, there are many times when you aren't blamed by others.
If that's the case, try to think, 'This isn't something to be blamed for.'
Reflect on it yourself and just be careful next time.
Of course, there are times when you will be blamed.
In that case, you should just think, 'This is something to be blamed for.'
I hate being blamed, but it can't be helped.
That is what 'taking responsibility' means.
Let's be blamed thoroughly.
After being blamed, just be careful from next time on.
2. Try to think 'It's good I failed early'
If I hadn't failed now, I might have made a bigger mistake.
Regarding the key incident, I reported it to the previous officer via LINE before writing this article, and I just received a warm reply saying, 'It should be fine.'
Thank you very much.
In my case this time, if I hadn't failed now, I might have realized it days after forgetting to lock it, or the shed might have actually been ransacked.
Terrifying.
Humans learn from success, but it's easier to learn when you fail.
That's because you don't want to repeat the unpleasant feelings.
Thinking that way, let's be grateful for the experience of failing now.
Now then, what kind of failure will I have tomorrow?
And from that, what kind of growth will I have?