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?
No Failure Vocabulary Text
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 arethey 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.” Itmeans 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.