Freshmen all look the same on their first day. Like terrified puppies. What is it with you kids? School could be enjoyable, but all everyone is ever worried about is messing up. Failure is not something you should be afraid of. Let me tell you a little something about failure. You cannot have success without failing first. It’s just not how it works. In fact, our success is largely dependent upon how we fail, as well as how we view our unsuccessful endeavors. And, most importantly, how we react to them afterwards.
You know, my father was the first to tell me that failure was ‘essential for success.’ Now, at the time, is sounded like complete and utter garbage, but that’s what he maintained. I first saw it in action when I was about five years old. I had learned how to skate, and was on my first hockey team. When the puck dropped, all the kids of both teams abandoned their positions and scrambled for that little black rubber disk as though it were the Golden Snitch. Parents stood around the perimeter of the ice rink cheering on their budding NHL stars, screaming words of encouragement. “Get the puck!” “Shoot it!” “Fall!”
That last one was from dear old dad. Yes, I had heard that right, and it now appeared that my own father was heckling me. Well, I soon found myself on the bench, (obviously), with my dad next to me explaining his…’encouragement.’
“You’re being too cautious,” he said. “You’re wearing a lot of equipment that’s going to protect you if you fall. So fall. This is the time to take chances to push the envelope, and that’ll lead to improvement.”
My father recognized that in those circumstances there was little risk in falling and virtually nothing at stake except some pride (because, really, who car...
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...ill young, and still have the opportunity to fail with relatively minor consequences.
When we “screw up" enough times, we can choose to give up and settle for something less challenging, or we can learn from the experience, build character, gain confidence, and aspire to more. It really is your choice. Failure discourages the weak, but encourages the strong. Don’t allow failure to absorb and destroy your resolve. Gain strength from knowing your desired outcome is one step closer. The more failure you’ve experienced, the less frightening the prospect of another failure becomes. Remember what Nietzsche, the philosopher, said: “Whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger.” Personally, I think Kelly Clarkson said it better, but that’s besides the point. Go ahead and take the risks—just, try not to get killed. It really would look terrible on our track record.
In the introduction to “The College Fear Factor”, Rebecca Cox provides examples of how students can find difficulty in succeed in college due many factors like the gap of communication between the student and the teacher, the expectations the teacher has are different from the expectations of the student, how fear is the leading factor for a student to fail is fear itself.
Stepping outside a comfort zone is a risk, and when it is doing something one is not accustomed to doing, the benefits gained raises ones overall confidence. “Breaking Through Uncertainty –Welcome Adversity,” Jim takes the risk of cutting away his original parachute (par. 15). Certainly this is a huge risk. Going outside the ordinary to trust your training is a life saver; however, though the benefit of taking the risk is saving his life, it is something he
Success and failure seem to be pretty distinct opposites, but many times the differences between success and failure aren’t as obvious as we may think them to be. Sometimes a failure can be turned into a success if you are willing to look back at them, and are open to learning from them. Many times, one’s attitude toward a failure can determine whether or not anything is learned from it. Those who remain upbeat and positive after a failure may be able to get something out of it, but those who just don’t think about it and ignore it won’t get anything from it.
Buchner (as cited in Hain, 2012) defined fall as “unintentionally coming to rest on a lower area, such as the ground, or floor (p. 252). In the hospital setting, nurses look for non-modifiable an...
A kid who never had a bad experience with heights before goes cliff jumping for the first time with friends. He is excited and eager at first, but when he looks ove...
All students will face the terror of entering college, a place that will rip you away from the familiarity you had before. It is a place with an atmosphere so different from what you’re used to that you’ll feel it before you walk on that campus. But don’t run away just yet, there’ve been other’s who’ve felt troubled with doubt and fear about their abilities to succeed as a student in college. In the article “Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure” author David L. Kirp implores that “students can acquire ways of thinking that helps them thrive” (1). In comparison, to Kirp’s article, the protagonist in “Make Your Home among Strangers” by Jennine Capo Crucet, also manages to overcome her doubt on her ability to succeed as a student. Students need to learn to face their fears in order to have the desired life that is filled with happiness and prosperity. First generation students constantly struggle with
People have said that to succeed, you must first fail. I didn’t really understand this until failure became so present in my life. In the beginning, my team was losing game after game, and getting knocked out of tournament after tournament. It was hard to keep playing on a team that was struggling so much. “Hang in there guys. We’re
"To be successful, you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can't just accept the ones you like" Mike Gafka. Gafka’s quote summarizes my Junior year as I had to grew accustom to many difficulties, face many challenges, and struggles such as time management as well as how I decided to take three Ap classes during my Junior year. Which were Ap US History, Physics, and English not to mention having a Math 140 zero period class and a Network+ computer course outside of school which made me have a busy schedule. Nevertheless I learned and gain a lot of new knowledge throughout my Junior year.
Failure can cause a torrent of mixed emotions and thoughts. One can begin to doubt their motives for even attempting to succeed at a certain task. Some people may choose to give up after failure, but there are a select few who rise up to the occasion and move forward to try and succeed no matter how many tries it takes. By overcoming those difficult moments in life, it gives a person a sense of accomplishment and pride and that alone is a beautiful thing.
I knew taking this shortcut was a mistake, yet I didn't think I had enough strength to keep climbing this monumental cliff with the others. The humidity was affecting my vision and the ground now started to spin. The muscles in my legs felt
As we walked to our car, we realized just how much the day had taken out of us physically. We were both bruised and sore from our practice jumps into the gravel pit and very tired. But, at the same time, our souls felt warm and satisfied at discovering that we could overcome our fears and experience the joy and freedom of skydiving.
Failure is apart of life, it can make or break a person. When a person experiences a type of failure it is now up to them to see how they respond. They can choose the high road, and become a stronger person for it. Then they can choose the low road, the easy way out. The easy way out is never a good choice. It can lead only to destruction. The high road is the right choice to take when responding to failure. It will lead down a path of success. Jessica Lahey’s article, “When Success Leads to Failure” is an article that shows how kids are experiencing failure. Lahey says that, “these kids have a fear for failure, and that they have given up natural loves for learning. They are scared of not being successful”(Lahey). The truth is life is hard there will be failure. There is nothing in this world that comes easy to anyone.
It’s best for people to experience failures to learn from them and never repeat them. The definition of failure would be “the lack of success.” Failures could range on how important they are. Some failures could be major and only affect a person in a small way. Some failures could affect a person on how the person views life or how the person lives it. An example of a small failure could be to check the milk expires to avoid drinking it. A person could of accidentally drank the rotten milk and then learned from that point on to check the expiration date instead of just drinking it. That failure wouldn’t be as important as other
I can relate to Melanie’s first impression of college being unfamiliar, scary and life changing in college fear factor. When I started my first semester it was a lot different than what I was used to going from a one on one studying experience back to a class room full of students. Melanie states, “Individuals well outside the ‘traditional’ college age range also spoke of the stress of assuming the responsibilities of college” (24). Melanie’s point is that students of all ages experience some anxiety when first attending
It doesn’t matter if they are failing or success, the only thing matter is how hard people are trying during the process. The value of success will worth and have respect after they walk through failure. It’s important on how people stand up after they failed, not how they failed, because everyone will fail at least one time on their life. A good example of people who fail but they stand up and learn from it is people who play sport. At first time of playing, no one will good at sport. Sometime they make a common mistake when they start play but if they learn from it, they won’t make that same mistake again during the game. To have that success they have to make mistake and fail during the practice so they can learn from it and practice to overcome their failure. But people who never fail when they play, they may make a common mistake on the