Celebrating Failure

Tell us about a time that you failed over and over again-- 

When I was younger I use to compete on a competitive cheerleading team. Over and over again, of course, we had to face defeat. Whether failure appeared at practice or at competitions, we would have to accept it in the end. Being on a team and competing means one must be aware of their teammates in as many ways as possible. Thus, when we would fail as a team, we must have each others backs no matter what in order to be able to pick back up the pieces and fix our mistakes. When we would fail at practices we would get repercussions right then and there, like extra workouts or being taken out of a section. When we would fail at competitions, we would find out the repercussions either later the same day or the next day at the awards ceremony. Ultimately, each time we would fail there would be some kind of repercussion we would have to deal with... as a team. 

what I learned from it -- 

I learned how to be there for others when we fail as a team. Failing as a team allows for you to fail with others and not alone, which makes it much easier to bounce back from failure. I learned how to take failure and view it as a good thing so that I can be better in the future, so that my team can be better in the future. I learned that failure is a good thing, without failure it is hard to know what you did wrong and how to fix mistakes. Accepting failure overall helps you 10x more than always winning. 

Reflect --

I handle failure by taking it by the horns and driving myself into a new direction to escape the failure. This means, I often do attach emotions to my failures, but once I am able to detach an emotional perspective on the situation, I am then able to learn and grow from the mistake(s). This class has changed my perspective on failure by encouraging me to fail more because by accepting failure we ultimately learn better. This class helped me deal with failure on my own versus what I am use to; dealing with failure as a team. I am definitely more likely to take risks now than ever before.