Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for “No Failure.”
Let’s begin.
Our first word is feedback, feedback.
There is on failure there is only feedback.
Feedback just means information that comes to you after an action.
Whoa, that’s a bit of a long explanation.
What does that mean?
It means you do something and then something happens, right?
There’s a reaction.
There’s a consequence.
So that’s what feedback is.
Feedback is a consequence or a reaction.
For example, if I try to memorize 10,000 new words, I study a vocabulary book and I do
this for five days, I will get feedback.
There will be results.
So maybe one month later I forget all the words, well that information, that reaction,
that result, is feedback.
It means it’s something I can learn from.
It’s information that comes back to you, right?
You do something and then information comes back.
A result comes back.
A reaction comes back.
Something happens.
There’s some kind of information after you do something, after you say something.
We call that feedback.
It’s the information that comes back to you.
It’s how you learn.
You learn from feedback.
You do something and then something happens.
Maybe something good happens, maybe something bad happens, whatever happens that result...that
result is feedback.
It’s information that comes back to you and then you can change what you’re doing.
If you like the feedback, if you like the result, well, keep doing it more, if you don’t
like it then you try something else.
All right, our next phrase is “to tack on.”
So in this article he says “We tack on a label.”
Right?
It’s not the event that’s important it’s the label we tack on to it.
So he’s saying something happens then we tack on the label “failure” or “failing.”
To tack on means to put on; to put on something.
So if you tack on a label you tack on a name.
It means you put the name onto the experience.
Something happens and then you decide “This is a failure.”
Right?
You’re putting the name onto it, you’re tacking it on.
So, again, tack on means to put on something or to stick onto something.
Our next word is process or processes, processes.
And a process, really, it’s an event.
It’s something that happens.
It’s a series of actions.
So it’s not a one-time thing, it’s something that happens over time, a process.
So we talk about a learning process.
That means the learning happens over time.
It’s not just suddenly it happens and it’s gone.
A process happens over time, it continues over some time.
That’s a process, something that continues over time, some action that continues over
time, process; a process.
Our next word is to contrast.
This can be a noun, also, but we’re using it as a verb.
So he says “Contrast two boys.”
So when you contrast something...you’re contrasting two boys.
To contrast two boys means to compare them.
Compare them.
Look at the differences.
When you contrast you’re looking at the differences.
You’re comparing differences.
So let’s contrast these two shirts.
It means we’re looking at the two shirts and we’re trying to find what’s different.
We’re comparing and finding what’s different.
To contrast, to contrast.
So we’re looking at the two boys, we’re looking, how are they different?
We’re comparing them to see how they’re different.
We’re contrasting them.
He says “Boy one and boy two, they’re both learning how to ride bicycles and they’re
both fumbling and falling down.”
To fumble means to drop something or to be clumsy, to be clumsy.
So when you fumble it means you drop something or you almost drop it.
So if you’re on a bike it means you almost fall on the bike or you actually do fall on
the bike.
So, again, fumbling has this idea of dropping, dropping something accidently or almost dropping
it.
Maybe you’re “Oh my God, oh!”
Right?
I’ve got a pen in my hand and “Oh, oh, oh, it’s going to fall!”
But it doesn’t fall, I’m fumbling it.
It’s almost falling.
Or even if it does fall you can say “I fumbled it.”
It fell out of my hands or it fell down.
That’s to fumble.
Then later in the article he says that “Boy one decides that’s he’s failing.
He says ‘I’m a failure.”
And boy one just doesn’t get it.
To get it means to understand.
So to get it, to get something, means to understand it.
If you say, “Ahhh I get it!” that means, “Ahhh I understand it.”
Or “I don’t get it!”
that’s another common phrase.
“I don’t get it!
I don’t get it!”
It means I don’t understand it.
I don’t understand it.
So to get it or to get something means to understand it, to understand something.
And then we have another phrase a little bit similar, but a different meaning, “to get
something out of it”, so to get out of it or to get anything out of it or to get something
out of it.
It means an experience.
So, for example, you say “I didn’t get anything out of that class.
I did not get anything out of that class.”
To get something out of it means to get a benefit, to get a benefit; a learning experience
or something else.
So if you say “I didn’t get anything out of the class”, it means I didn’t learn
anything from the class.
So, again, to get something out of an experience means to learn something from the experience.
Or you could say the opposite, “I got a lot out of that class.
I got a lot out of that class.”
It means I learned a lot from that class.
So I got a lot out of it, I learned a lot from it, same meaning.
Our next phrase is “to beat yourself up”, to beat yourself up.
And he says “Boy two develops his bicycle riding skill because he doesn’t beat himself
up.
He doesn’t label himself as a failure.”
To beat yourself up means to criticize yourself, quite simple.
It means you say negative things about yourself.
You criticize yourself.
You beat yourself up.
So if I beat myself up I say “Oh, AJ you’re a failure.
AJ you’re so stupid!
AJ you suck, you’re a bad teacher!”
Right?
I’m beating myself up.
I’m saying bad things to myself, beating myself up.
So he’s saying “Smart people do not beat themselves up.
Smart people do not say bad things to themselves.
They don’t say ‘I’m a failure.’
They don’t beat themselves up.”
They don’t criticize themselves.
All right and, finally, one more word, one more phrase, actually, “cruising along.”
He says “Sometimes in your life things are cruising along.”
Parts of your life are cruising along.
Cruising along means going well, going smoothly, happening easily, and doing very well.
You can say “Oh, wow, my business is cruising along.”
It means my business is having no problems.
It’s moving forward with no problems, so cruising along.
If something is cruising along it means it’s going steadily, it’s moving forward and
there are no problems.
You can say “Oh, my relationship with my girlfriend or wife or husband or boyfriend”
you could say “my relationship is cruising along.”
It means there are no problems, everything this is fine and everything is moving forward,
smoothly, steadily.
So that’s cruising along, to be cruising along.
And that is the end of our vocabulary lesson for “No Failure.”
I will see you next time.