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Introduction
I recently ran a race, aiming to beat my personal best. So I trained hard and was confident that on the day I would at least get the same time as my personal best if I didn't manage to beat it.
However, after the first few miles, I knew my legs were not responding as they should have.
I pushed hard for half of the race, but I knew at that point that the minutes were piling up and I was not going to better my PB. So, I changed my mentality and I tried to just enjoy the run.
Nonetheless, there was still the niggle in the back of my mind that was pushing me to run faster and faster and try to get back in a decent time.
In the end, I finished the race, and I was quite happy though not very satisfied about the time.
What went wrong? Well I’d changed my training schedule and my eating regime before the run…and that changed a lot.
But, where am I going with all this? I learned a couple of lesson from the whole experience, and I wanted to share, and there you have it.
“Life” lessons I learnt from the experience:
1. Failure demands acceptance
Don’t be angry at failure…it cannot fight back. When things start going sideways, don’t get mad. Anger leads to non-rational analysis and ultimately to more failures.
2. Be rational about failure
When things start going bad be sensible about it, breathe, analyse, assess the situation and react accordingly (or plan a reaction).
3. Failure builds character
Failing helps to build a stronger character as you have to go through something painful and analyse it rationally without letting emotions get in the way.
4. Failure is a great but strict teacher
Failure grants trough painful lessons additional experience, that if examined rationally and correctly provide turns into lessons and constructive knowledge.
5. Failure creates opportunities
Failing leads to new lessons or could open your eyes to new aventures. There have been plenty of times after failing that I discovered new roads or new ways of doing things.
6. Failure leads to a better plan and perseverance
Train hard but also have an idea for the big day, and stick to it.
I did train and had a plan…but changed it all at the last minute. The decision was a bad one but now due to the experience gained and shared hopefully won’t repeat it. Nonetheless, this will not put me off from training harder and adjusting the plan again.
7. Failure teaches toughness
Accepting a failure, overcoming and learning from it…is a tough job so ultimately it will build a resilient character.
8. Failure requires courage
I was, and currently, still am, afraid of failing. Either you want to admit it or not if you care for something you will be fearful of not achieving it. The fear of failure will always result in a small wall that demandscertain courage to overcome it.
9. Failure generates inventiveness
When struggling to achieve an objective, we tend to think outside the box. I found myself trying different avenues when facing a challenge and discovered that the tougher the problem the more inventive I needed to be to crack it.
10. Failure is part of life
Ultimately in life, we will all fail at something. Depending on the degree it might hurt more or less. The critical part is getting over it, learning a lesson and moving on.
The quote: “the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results," is so true and ultimately if you don’t learn a lesson you’ll keep on repeating the same errors just in different scenarios.
Conclusion
Failing, ultimately, makes us better and stronger people as long as we learn to accept it and use it to improve.
Share with me an instance where you failed and how you overcame it to better yourself.
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Infosec CyberSecurity
Cybersecurity Consultancy London Based