Failure

Continuing our series of defining words for people that don't seem to now what they mean...

Again, we begin at the beginning with dictionary.com...

fail·ure

   [feyl-yer]  Show IPA

noun

1.

an act or instance of failing  or proving unsuccessful; lack ofsuccess: His effort ended in failure. The campaign was a failure.

2.

nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: afailure to do what one has promised; a failure to appear.

3.

a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failureof crops.

4.

deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.:The failure of her health made retirement necessary.

5.

a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.

Clearly, in this case, we are going to have to dig deeper

fail

   [feyl]  Show IPA

verb (used without object)

1.

to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved: The experiment failed because of poor planning.

2.

to receive less than the passing grade or mark in anexamination, class, or course of study: He failed in history.

3.

to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient orabsent; fall short: Our supplies failed.

4.

to dwindle, pass, or die away: The flowers failed for lack ofrain.

5.

to lose strength or vigor; become weak: His health failed after the operation.

verb (used with object)

9.

to be unsuccessful in the performance or completion of: He failed to do his duty.

10.

(of some expected or usual resource) to prove of no use orhelp to: His friends failed him. Words failed her.

11.

to receive less than a passing grade or mark in: He failedhistory.

12.

to declare (a person) unsuccessful in a test, course ofstudy, etc.; give less than a passing grade to: The professorfailed him in history.

noun

13.

Stock Exchange .

a.

a stockbroker's inability to deliver or receive securitywithin the required time after sale or purchase.

b.

such an undelivered security.

14.

Obsolete . failure as to performance, occurrence, etc.

Idiom

15.

without fail, with certainty; positively: I will visit youtomorrow without fail.

Origin: 
1175–1225; Middle English failen  < Anglo-French, Old French faillir < Vulgar Latin *fallīre,  for Latin fallere  to disappoint, deceive

Related forms

un·failed, adjective

So, then, "failure" is "an act or instance of falling short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved.  Or, an act or instance of being unsuccessful in the performance or completion of something.  How do we know, then, if we fail if we do not set a clear goal?  And, in the absence of a stated goal on the part of an actor, how can we define whether or not they failed?  A street full of apples may be seen from an outside observer as a failure, especially since they are viewing the world through their own narrow lens within which it is imperative that apples stay in the cart, but if the actor's goal from the beginning was to overturn the apple cart, then that same street full of apples is indicative of a success!  As another example, one might say that rejection by the first girl at the bar is a failure, but if the guy's goal for the night was to talk to 25 women he's just getting started.

Most people will never know true failure.  Why?  Because they never set goals.  Or if they do, the goals they set are so weak that they are virtually guaranteed success.  If your goal is to get to work on time in the morning and you leave a full 10 minutes earlier than when you need to, that's not a success, that's just sad.  Others simply focus their efforts and time where they are naturally talented or skilled.  The guy with the ridiculously strong leg becomes a kicker.  The kid that can do long division in his head becomes a math wizz.  These are not successes, because they did not set goals, they simply did what came naturally.  Do we call a dog a success for having eaten and then shit?

Anywhere you go you will hear about how goals need to be specific, achievable, measurable, and time-bound.  Yup.  But you know what else they need to be?  Challenging!  If the goals are not challenging they are pointless.  If you never fail to meet a goal in your time given, you're doing it wrong.  and by "it" I mean "setting the goals too low to begin with".  If this shit was easy, everyone would do it.  What is the point of setting a goal you know you can meet?  This isn't about goals, it's about failure.  But it's interesting to note that so many of these concepts rely on having a baseline and knowing your skillset.

How does this relate to shooting?

In Kyle Lamb's VTAC Carbine 1.5 class recently he and Dan both talked about training to exceed your skillset.  You want to fail.  If you're shooting the 1-5 drill and you never get a shot outside the -0, how do you know if you're really operating at your maximum skillset?  If you're shooting a Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) standard and you never miss, how do you know what your true personal effective range is? (which is something I'll try to come back and address in a later blog post).  Pat McNamara, similarly, talked about "failing quickly".  Push yourself past your previous limits, fail, and get over it and get back to it.  Ken Hackathorn advised to paste your bad hits first, not just to hide them from your buddies but so that you can focus on what you're doing right.  All of these are ways to deal with failure.  Bruce Wayne's father asked him "why do we fall down?", and the answer is "so that we can learn to pick ourselves back up again."  We learn more from pushing ourselves to the point of failure than we ever will operating in that safe zone of known performance.  But living in that safe zone is fucking lame.