Being one who has over analyzed practically all of my failures, it seems understandable why one would not want to share them. Fear of ridicule, fear of being made fun of, fear of future performances. People have a lot of reasons to keep their failures locked up and tucked far away where no one can notice them, but is this right, and more importantly, is it healthy?
Failure is normal. It happens to us all. Some of the greatest minds and greatest athletes in history have failed numerous times. But what’s more important to remember is that they succeeded after those failures. Michael Jordan missed over 10,000 shots. Thomas Edison found 10,000 ways a light bulb COULDN’T work. The difference is that:
1) They didn’t give up.
2) They learned from their mistakes.
Failing sucks. We all know that. But to bottle it up is another failure in the making. What happens if you mess up, but instead of analyzing why and how you did, you just stormed off and threw a fit and complained. Well first, you would look immature, and then you wouldn’t learn what you did wrong, so you’d probably screw up again. So worth it.
Another thing is that if you understand that you are going to fail at some point, no matter how big or how small, unless its like a life and death situation, which hopefully none of us ever come across, it will take the pressure off of you actually doing the work. You can’t succeed without at least starting.
If you worry about failing, you have already failed. You are creating a problem out of nothing, and it’s just not worth it.
Okay, back to the silent types. Failure should be shared. It should be known about because it does not define who we are, and I think most us think that it will. What we could actually find out is that people will help you get passed the failure, people will learn from it as well, and in the end, it was probably a good thing that you said something because it built a foundation for later successes. Not that you have to be the martyr for every situation. But just know that it’s okay to share these things.
Sharing these little failures is necessary. Even the big ones too. Of course there will be times when the initial repercussions are negative, but some circumstances might need that in order for there to be future successes. But let’s not focus on that. There’s a time and a place for negativity, and this isn’t that kid of article.
In life, we are given the opportunity to succeed in one way or another. But success does not mean that you can’t get anything wrong. Very few have the resume of success that is not accompanied by failure. Always learn from the shot you missed, and the light bulb that didn’t turn on because in the end, they were the reason you succeeded.
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