“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
-J.K Rowling
In recent years podcasts have spiked in popularity and have grown to cover a wide range of topics. One of my favourite podcasts is “Welcome to Night Vale,” a podcast presented as a radio show that documents the strange events occurring within a fictional town, but I recently decided to listen to Episode 174 of “People Behind the Science”. This is a podcast hosted by Dr. Marie McNeely that explores the lives and discoveries of many of today’s brilliant scientists. Episode 174 features our very own Professor Dawn Bazely as she discusses her research and gives several great pieces of advice to science students.
Around the 1-hour mark (time stamp- 1:01:00) Dawn mentions that as science students we should allow ourselves to fail and upon hearing this the first time around I was in disbelief. As students in the faculty of science I’m sure we’ve all experienced our fair share of mistakes and failure at some point in our academic careers. Past failures can instill fear in us and discourage us from persevering or trying new things. I can speak from personal experience and say that I’m often hesitant to start tasks I find daunting due to a fear of failure. Listening to this podcast really gave me a new perspective on failure and Dawn’s advice makes perfect sense.
The best way to master something is to fail at it, see how you can improve from your mistakes and try again. If we constantly worry about avoiding failure, we’ll miss out on opportunities and learning experiences. As science students we will constantly come across challenges and difficulties. It’s an unavoidable aspect of human nature. And it’s okay. The best thing we can do in the face of adversity is use our struggles as motivation to improve for the future, whether this be studying for a midterm, writing a lab report or even giving a presentation. Dawn also mentioned one of her favourite quotes by Winston Churchill and it resonated deeply with me; “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Failure leaves us feeling deflated and disheartened and in order to truly succeed it is important we overcome these feelings, focusing our energy into bettering ourselves and working on the tasks ahead.
I would give similar advice to science students and recommend reaching out when you’re struggling and need help. Failure and self-doubt go hand in hand and low self-confidence can cause us to feel isolated and uncertain. It’s important to have a strong support system so that when we do feel discouraged by failure, we know we have people in our lives that can uplift and comfort us. Studying with a friend or classmate is a great way to have positive social interaction while getting things done and increasing your understanding of a subject. Learning by teaching others has been proven to be extremely effective and this form of collaboration can give us new perspectives we might have not recognized before.
It was inspiring to hear Dawn talk about how she used her experiences with failure and turned them into opportunities. Her advice from this podcast was extremely useful and made me look at failure in a new way. Of course, it will be difficult to overcome the fear of failure but with this advice in mind and the support of friends and family, we as science students can learn to view failure as a steppingstone not a roadblock.
I’ve linked the podcast down below, I encourage you all to give it a chance and hear what Dawn has to say. Happy listening!
References
Episode 174: Dr. Dawn Bazely: Investigating the Intriguing Interactions between Animals and Plants (Oct 31, 2014). People Behind the Science Podcast. http://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-dawn-bazely/#disqus_thread
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 