We only fail when we fail to learn
By Kim Deans
Lots of things we tried when we became stewards of The Oasis did not create the results we had anticipated. When we arrived here in 2004 we planted loads of plants that we soon discovered could not survive on our frosty, brittle site with soil so poor even a spinach plant would not grow over winter. Armed with local horticultural and agricultural knowledge and experiences along with advice from local nurseries we expected things would go according to our plan. Out of 36 native trees we planted, chosen due to what was growing around us only 4 survived! We planted camelias that died the first winter and loads of other garden plants too numerous to mention also became casualties. Looking at The Oasis today you would never expect that getting anything to grow here started with so many challenges.
Perhaps you can relate? It’s common for those of us embarking on a regenerative path to try new things that don’t instantly produce the results we are hoping for. What we do with these experiences comes down to how successfully we regenerate our mindset alongside our landscape. Do we see ourselves as a failure and give up? Do we decide regenerative methods don’t work and stop trying to make a change? Do we sell the place and go somewhere else, only to discover a different set of challenges? Do we keep trying random actions and continually fall short of achieving the outcomes we desire? Or do we use every experience as feedback and see challenges as learning opportunities to grow our regenerative capacity?
“There is no failure, only feedback.” – Robert Allen
Our fear of failure is one of the most common barriers we come up against when it comes to reinventing the way we farm to produce regenerative outcomes. Fear of failure underlies our concerns about what others will think of us, our discomfort with uncertainty, our desire for a prescription that tells us exactly what to do to create a specific outcome. Being hard wired to avoid “failure” at all costs keeps us blind to feedback. When we are blind to feedback the unintended consequences of agricultural practices like polluted water, declining soil health, the impacts of pesticides on human & ecosystem health, ever increasing rates of inputs (just to name a few) keep on compounding and creating more harm than good.
If we had viewed our experiences here at The Oasis in terms of failure, we would have given up and never grown a thing. By taking the perspective of using these experiences as feedback we curiously tried more ways to restore our soil naturally so we could successfully grow a garden, an abundance of food and pastures for our livestock that have improved the carrying capacity by 4 times what it was when we came here 18 years ago. A growth mindset that sees challenges as opportunities to learn is what has grown our personal regenerative capacity alongside the land we steward. This growth mindset set us on a rewarding soil restoration journey that continues to this day.
We only fail when we fail to learn. It is ok to make mistakes, the key is to learn from them and not keep doing the same things that don’t work over and over expecting a different result. The definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.
One of the most powerful mindset reframes we can embrace on a regenerative journey where we are forging new paths, both inside our minds and in the landscape, is to choose to see feedback instead of failure. We don’t regenerate anything by thinking about it or talking about it. We regenerate by doing things differently. Mistakes are part of learning when we do things differently. There are plenty of learning opportunities on a regenerative path. What sets those who create regenerative outcomes apart from those who don’t is what we do when things don’t go to plan. Do we see challenges as excuses to stay the same? Or as opportunities to learn, innovate and grow through both personally and in the field.
“I never failed at making a light bulb, I found 99 ways not to make one.” - Thomas Edison
When you make the choice to see feedback instead of failure it is important to remember that the most powerful feedback comes from our own personal observations based on our own experiences. We often abandon our own ideas and focus on what outside “experts” tell us to do. Remember that other people are operating from their own assumptions and world views not our own. If we give their well-meaning feedback priority over our own observations within our context we are limiting our success. Listen to yourself and the landscape you steward first. The feedback that leads to regenerative outcomes comes from within the system not outside of it.