Have you ever fallen flat on your face? Have you ever been intimidated by the phantom of failure? Have you ever given in to the fear of failure? If your answer is in the affirmative, you have a multitude of friends around you. For most of us there is nothing scarier than the experience of failure. For example, when our memory fails, we end up delivering speeches that we think are far from satisfactory. We tend to think the end of the world is nigh. When we underperform at home or at work, we lose our ease and remain regretful, and the “failure syndrome” is obvious on our faces for long. The phenomenon of failure can cause us to get into weird states of mind. For example, it, sometimes, deludes us into giving up on pursuing our dreams. It guiles us into descending into a vortex of emotional imbalance. It leaves us momentarily devoid of the joy of life.
When I was a senior high school student, I consistently tasted academic success. My test scores did my parents proud. My friends always complimented me and my teachers never complained about me. It was a smooth sail until I entered my university career. My elective subject at grade eleven was physics, and I enjoyed the world of this empirical science. However, I chose to specialize in English language and literature at tertiary level as English was my first love.
Strangely enough, I flunked my first test with a dismal performance. Since I was not used to failing a test throughout my secondary school life, I could hardly come to terms with the new reality. For a while the dynamic world around me froze, leaving me paralyzed.I wouldn't talk to anyone to ask for advice to unload my emotional baggage. I even contemplated divorcing my first love.
But the benediction of failure is often imperceptible to frail minds. However, a little adjustment to our attitude will help us discover this blessing. I discovered the cause of the so-called “academic failure”. I did not follow the recommended study skills. I followed a flawed method of approaching topics in conceptual subjects. I memorized what I was required to analyze and understand. This realization awakened in me a new interest in approaching failure, and I reached moderate success. “Failure” sent me on a quest for self-discovery.
Fear of failure is absolutely unfounded and irrational because failure is a passing phase.
“Failure” pulls the wool over our eyes. It can't cripple us without our “permission”. It's like a performer who temporarily emotes for the camera in varied ways, but is an ordinary individual off the sets. We seldom buy into what he acts out.
When we figure out the truth, we understand it's a sign of a delayed but definite success. It's a sign of an on-coming hope. It is a pregnant pause before a punch in effective speaking. It is only a bend in the road and not the end of the journey. Therefore, we should never let failure frustrate us.
Let's now sit back and figure out failure's bright face and count its blessings. • Failure tells us how we are and how we ought to be. No man wants to remain ignorant of himself.
• It helps us renew our resolve to rebound, enhancing our psychological preparedness to face future failures.
• Failure is a great teacher who teaches us the value of waiting.
• Failure helps us eliminate ego and achieve humility which is the greatest of all virtues. • To fail is to try and vice versa. In the history of mankind, no child has ever been able to stand up or walk without successive falls and slips. After all, life is a garland of seamlessly strung flowers of trials and errors.
• Failure pays to enrich our experience.
• When we fail, we have something to look forward to. That's what keeps life going.
More often than not we are victims of an error of judgment. We tend to think others would evaluate us from the perspective of our failures, secretly smiling at our “setbacks”. First of all, it is an illusion we are under. As a matter of fact, others have had worse nightmares than us. Secondly, if they really do, they are sick and their minds trivial. They have an erroneous perception of “failures”. John Powell, a renowned psychologist from the US, says: “The way you perceive things is not the way things are, but the way you are”. If someone with jaundice looks at things around them, everything appears yellowish.
Life is a lovely journey. The more frequently we take wrong routes and are lost, the tougher we emerge. If we are committed to learning, let's learn from our failures. If we are passionate about delivering quality speeches, let's look upon our substandard speeches and failed attempts as major milestones on the way to success. Failure is our friend, not our foe.
