For many, failure has a negative connotation. I do not see it that way.
In life, you win some and you lose some. It comes down to the relationship you have with failure.
Focusing only on the outcome and not the journey is an incredible disservice to yourself. Failure is one of life’s greatest teachers and can help you grow in so many ways.
Once you can look past the outcome that you deemed “failure”, you can begin to look at the small little details that may have contributed to your growth, changed your life, or taught you something new.
I fail all the time and it is okay. Sometimes I try something new and it does not work out. Other times I experiment and sometimes it works out in my favor and sometimes it does not. Life is all about taking risks and part of taking risks comes the possibility of failure.
Failure or apparent failure can change the trajectory of your life. Since I was a young child, I always wanted to be a weatherman. I used to watch The Weather Channel instead of cartoons and nerd out over snowstorms and thunderstorms. Math was always a struggle and my career path required a lot of math, including calculus and calculas-based physics.
Needless to say, going into this degree, I knew it was going to be hard work. I had no problem putting in the work, but it became clear during my first year it was going to be incredibly challenging.
I had a decision to make. I did not necessarily fail but was the reward and something I knew I wanted to do all my life worth it? I ultimately decided to abandon my childhood dream and go into the world of broadcast journalism. It was not a big change since I was already minoring in it.
Changing my major changed the trajectory of my life. I wound up transfering to a new school, landed an internship, and then began working at my first full-time about 2 months after graduating college.
It is hard to say how different my life would have been had I stuck it out. Life will always have those “what-ifs”. What appeared to be an apparent failure was a teaching and growth moment for me.
We all have similar stories. May be it was a career change, relationship change, or location change. Embracing these moments as part of your journey and path is so helpful when trying to see how something seemingly negative fits into the bigger picture.
What is your relationship with failure like?
Joe Gullo