We live in a society that is constantly pushing people to be ‘perfect,’ but in reality, there is no such thing. People compare themselves with misconceptions of success and celebrity and subsequently view themselves as failures. That's why it is not surprising that the fear of failure has actually been ranked in the top ten fears of American youth nation wide.
But what truly makes a failure a bad thing? In the moment, it can definitely suck to think that we were not capable of doing something. However, sometimes we need to experience failure whether in school or just in life, just to realize that we are stronger, more capable, and more resilient than previously believed. Failure has the ability to shape us into our better selves, as sometimes it takes failures (no matter how small) to learn, and by taking that knowledge of what didn’t work we can succeed by growing from our mistakes.
When you try something new, like taking college classes for the first time, or perhaps you’re trying out a new job, failure of some sort often comes with the territory. But the fact that you are trying to expand your horizons and try something that you have never done before is a success in itself. As J.K. Rowling once beautifully put it, "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 fail by default." Life would be so mundane without the unforeseen curve balls that it throws at you.
It can be incredibly difficult to realize in the moment of our mistakes that they are actually for the better sometimes. I especially know that as I tend to dwell on all of my failures and feel pretty miserable about them; until suddenly, I stop my self pitying and put it behind me and consequently feel much more motivated to try again and defy everyone’s expectations. I view my failures as a challenge to rise up and overcome them, and being the competitive person that I am, my mistakes definitely have helped me unlock a lot of my potential by aspiring to achieve no matter what life throws at me. I remember how I feel when I fail at things and use that to remind myself that I never want to feel like that again, which helps me push myself to reach my goals. And if I don’t reach my goals, at least I know that I put 110% of myself into whatever I was trying to achieve and can still learn from the experience.
It’s not what mistake you do that will define you, it’s how you handle it afterwards. By celebrating your mistakes and learning how to cope with frustration and sadness, you gain some incredibly valuable skills and knowledge about yourself. And eventually, you will succeed and those successes will mean so much more knowing that you really worked for them.
So, if you do fail, don’t be too hard on yourself (as this is what I have finally learned myself). As Hannah Montana so famously put it, everyone makes mistakes and nobody’s perfect. Think of J.K. Rowling, Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, and so many more. They would not be the successes they are without knowing some form of failure to drive them to their full potential for great things.
