I hope you’re all doing well! Today, I wanted to share some thoughts on the topic of failure. It’s a subject that often makes us cringe, but let’s face it – it’s an inevitable part of life.
We all encounter setbacks, make mistakes, and stumble along the way. However, I feel that it is so important to remember that failure isn’t the end; it’s a chance to learn, grow, and come back even stronger.
My recent experience made me reflect on how failure can sometimes feel like a giant roadblock. However, I think we need to shift our perspective and see it as a stepping stone on our journey to success.
Questions for you today:
How do you personally cope with failure, and what strategies help you bounce back?
Can you share a story about a time when failure led to unexpected opportunities or personal growth?
Let’s turn this discussion into a space where we can learn from each other’s experiences and build a supportive community that understands that failure is just a temporary detour on our road to success!
I have experienced a failure before, but the ending of my story is not necessarily a positive one, but today I guess I’m coping.
At the age of 18, I was in a very bad state of mental health. I was going to have a major examination soon, and somehow, I was certain that I’ll fail the examination. My condition was pretty bad, I heard shouting in my head whenever I tried to study or complete my work. I did not have the strength to go lie on my bed and ended up just lying on the floor. I tried to tell people around me what was happening to me, my parents told me that I’m not the only one in distress and everyone is experiencing the same thing as me. My friend told me that I was simply too stressed and told me I needed a break. Well, I did take a break, considering I ended up hardly doing any work all the way till examination.
Well, I did end up failing it. And all my opportunities of getting a degree in a university were dashed.
So how did I end up coping with this failure? By giving up. I give up on chasing after my aspirations and dreams, I give up on working hard and not being guaranteed a successful life. Failure to me is like an experience of falling really hard and it hurts, but for me, it feels like no one is there to help me up, and I am a weak-minded person that can’t get up myself.
The way I ended up coping sounds really negative, by just giving up on climbing back up again. But if failure is really like falling down, and if I don’t get back up, I won’t fall again, and I won’t be hurt again right?
I don’t advise anyone to go down my path to be honest. Because it also has its own side effects. By giving up on chasing after anything, it feels like I am stepping into retirement at a young age (early 20s). And sometimes I find it quite unbelievable even. But yet, if I try to work hard at something again, it feels like history will repeat itself and I have to constantly remind myself, I will have to bear the consequences all by myself, and I’m not strong enough to do that
Thank you for sharing your story and your failures with us, I guess the universal truth is that we ALL experience failures in life - it’s about how we use these failures to step forward!
I also want to encourage you with some of my personal stories of failure (and lots of self disclosure here)
I didn’t attend my O’level chinese exam because I knew I was going to fail it, so I skipped it on that day = Failed
I failed my driving test 3 times and was super discouraged
I had multiple relationships (more than 10!) before I finally found my partner and got married! It was a tiring season of breakups and crying but I made it out somehow with my eye bags intact (haha, another story for another day)
I had a miscarriage and this was my biggest “failure” as a mother
I failed my exam in Marriage/Family therapy module and felt devastated
I failed in many job interviews and felt utterly dejected
All these happened in my life and I had many bigger and smaller failures. I can’t think of a specific way that I coped with each failure but I want to say that, somehow… We’ll make it. As long as we don’t give up!
I know this is a pretty brief description, but I really want to encourage you to not give up and somehow you’ll find your groove. I can bet you that although there have been failures in your life, there are definitely many successful moments too, just that perhaps it might be too difficult for you to see these successes or these rainbows for the timebeing.
Just don’t give up on yourself - even if we stumble through life, don’t stop!
Yours sincerely,
The expert-stumbler who is still fumbling through life
I guess everyone goes thru failures. I actually , believe or not , have a song i wrote called Failure is not the end. The chorus is like " Take it slow, Take it one step at a time, youve got to carry on with life, Now is the time to get back on your feet, if you want to succeed. You should be searching for a solution, instead of jumping into conclusion and know that failure is not the end "
I personally believe that its time i work on myself instead of looking to settle down eventhough im in my 40s now. And yeah, Im not going to list down the failures i had but ive been thru a lot too so i can empathize with you.
Anyways Wish me luck with this music thing im doing. I have a lot of hopes and dreams and yeah a lot of lessons. You either win or learn in this life.
To be honest, for me - it was hard to accept failure when I was young since it was mostly because of my parents’ reaction that it became hardwired in my mind.
But now, I am learning to unwire it with a constant reminder that it is just a step, plus reminding myself that even spacecraft like Ohsumi (The first Japanese spacecraft that only successfully launched after 4 failures in a row) experienced failure and yet bounded back.
At least, I didn’t expect to learn life lessons from spacecraft like Cassini (First Saturn Orbiter), which taught me there are multiple paths forward back in 2018 - But, here I am, learning and applying what I learnt from them which is why I hope to be able to use my talent of drawing spacecraft in a cute way to help others, just like how they unexpected helped me. I guess this is why I gave myself the epithet/title of ’ Spacecraft Animist’.
