Episode 03: Alison Roman

Failure

It can be a dirty word. Something we are afraid of. I don’t know anyone who wants to fail. But I like to remind myself of my favorite acronym for FAIL - First Attempt In Learning. 

Failure can apply to many aspects of life - your job, a class, workout or even gardening.

I love to garden. Everywhere I can find a little space I fill it with a plant. Two falls ago I attempted to plant bulbs. I went all out. I bought tulips, crocus, daffodils, you name it. I bought about 50 bulbs. I thought I had done all the research I needed to and was excited for a bright colorful show in the spring.

Well, not one bulb flowered. Not one. 

I got a couple of green shoots but no blooms. I was bummed. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong. Were the pots to small, the soil too wet, too dry? I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through the process again. Maybe bulbs just couldn’t grow in pots on a balcony. I could have chucked it in and accepted the failure but I didn’t. Last fall I decided to give it another go. I had the experience of the previous fall and taking that and new things I had learned I went full steam ahead. It was a gamble, I didn’t know if it would work this time and there was a high chance that it might not. But if you want something bad enough the idea of failure doesn’t and shouldn’t hold you back. 

When you think of failure in that way, it doesn’t hold as much weight or hang over you as much as before. Its just an opportunity to learn and get better. I was willing to put the time and money into attempting to grow bulbs even if it meant that I wouldn’t be successful because every failure would only make me better the next time around.

And lets just say I got quite the show this Spring.