Q&A

1. How would you define “failure”?

From my perspective, If I accomplish  something reluctantly or without being  happy or without making my loved ones  happy , achieve something but bring trouble to others , reach my goal by violating my  value of honesty ,gain my success without a peaceful mind, that is failure.

2. How failures could be a blessing in  disguise? Please include a story of yours.

Our proudest achievements come in the  face of the greatest adversity. Our failures make us painful. Our pain make us stronger, more resilient,more ground. Our most radical change often happen at the tail end of our worst moments.

Once I had an opportunity to have a open  class in front all of my colleagues. It was the first time I had had the open class. I didn’t  prepare it well nor I ask advice from my  senior colleagues. I thought it would be ok. But it turned out a total failure. Neither my  students took active in my class nor I  reached my teaching goal. I humiliated my  self before my colleagues. I felt suck. That  failure gave a me profound lesson, no  matter what i do, be well prepared for it. In a sense, it made me grow more mature. 

3. Who/What made us tend to avoid failure?

Avoiding failure is something we learn at some later point in life. A lot of it comes from  our education system; another lager share  of it comes from overbearing or critical of parents; then another reason is the mass media that constantly expose us to stellar  success and success while not showing us  the thousands of dull practice and tedium  that were required to achieve that success. The last reason is that we have chosen shitty values. 

4. Do you have any “VCR questions”? And what are they?

Yes, I have some “VCR” questions;

For example, how can I unburden my  thoughts we I disagree with my colleagues confidently?

How can I speak as much as oral English in my class?

How can I straightforward tell some of my  students they are not fit for high school but  develop some skills?

How can I read more books either English or Chinese?

4. Have you done “do something” recently? or are you going to do some “do something”?

No, but I’m considering completing the  English version Gone with the Wind. I have bought this book for a long time. I always  thought I would finish reading it when I have time. Half years have past , I only read  several pages of it .I put it off over again and again for various reasons. I plan to do  something every day to finish it.

New Words :

1. Because this taught me at an early age that making money ,by itself, was a lousy metric for myself.

lousy: adj;  If you describe something as lousy, you mean that it is of very bad quality or that you do not like it ---同义词：crappy/shitty. 糟糕的,蹩脚的

Eg: He had a lousy weekend.

2. when inspiration is seen as a reward rather than a prerequisite –we propel ourselves ahead.

Propel: to move, drive, or push something forward推动；推进；驱动

      to move someone into a new situation or make them do something 使处于…的境况；驱使，迫使

eg: His failure to borrow money from his relatives propelled him to rob his neighbor.

3. but what I discovered, over those long,  grueling months of bombed product launches.

Grueling: torturous; backbreaking折磨人的，使人精疲力竭的

Eg:The process of finding a job is grueling.

My thoughts:

Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it.

在我的意识里，要我去做某件事情，给我个理由吧，或者说我得有想做的冲动，意愿。比如参加读书会这件事情，我就是想学点英语，因为我的专业是英语，我要靠英语吃饭，所以我要不断学习英语不断提高它，所以我就做了这件事情了。但是今天看到作者说行动也是动机的原因，自细想想确实是这个道理。初中的时候英语挺不错的，老师夸奖同学羡慕，每天努力坚持学英语，越努力，就越有干劲，就越想学，其实就是自己的努力带动了学习的欲望，有了学习的欲望就会付出更多的努力。其实，我很赞成Eric今天在直播里说的一句话，道理都懂，如果不行动，不去做到就是不懂。So with simply do something as my metric for success.