Rethinking Success And Failure

Written By Colēgia

When we think of success we may associate it with certain things such as finances. For failure, we may commonly see it as a mistake. Both of these are simply one way of viewing two very broad ideas and while they aren't invalid, there is more to these than meets the eye. Today we want to take some time to rethink success and failure.

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Success is More Than We Think

The most common way that many people view success is in relation to money. This can range from having a high paying career or an abundance of material goods. While finances are an important part of our lives, choosing to define success through only that metric can more often than not cause more harm than good. Success is a combination of many different aspects of your life and some people may place higher priorities on different parts. Good examples of this are finding success in school by getting grades that make you happy and satisfied with your progress. This can also extend into the career side as well which can involve finding a career that provides meaning while also keeping you financially secure. This extends beyond our own individual goals too. Finding success in our relationships for example is another metric as it can give us a good balance between weighing our own needs versus others. Personal happiness is also valuable as it can motivate you to accomplish other goals in your life. Success is good and we should push for it where we can, but we also need to find value in many different ways to truly be happy.

“Success is a combination of many different aspects of your life and some people may place higher priorities on different parts.”

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Failure is Not a Bad Thing

We are often taught that failure is a bad thing. The reason why we think this is that we treat something such as losing at a sport, or not performing well at a test as something that is inherently bad. Failure is not only necessary for our development but essential for us to improve at what we do. Learning something new can be difficult as we may be out of our comfort zone. While this may seem intimidating at first, we can gradually become more accustomed to it the more we continue to try new things. Embracing new subjects is something that is helpful for school as we take many different courses throughout our academic journey. Even if we may not do well at our first test for a subject, we can take that as an opportunity to reflect and see what new things we can do to improve. Self-discovery is core to improving and failure gives us the chance to see how to do this while also being introspective.

“Failure is not only necessary for our development but essential for us to improve at what we do.”

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Both Sides Promote Balance

Balance is a key aspect of how we view success and failure and whenever the scales tip are when it can become difficult. We want to be mindful of our accomplishments in our success and cherish how far we've come. Likewise, we don't want to be too complacent in our achievements that it prevents us from trying something new out of fear of failure. We want to embrace a flexible mindset that empowers us, yet keeps us grounded in what we have to do. Balance can help us get closer to the ideal type of mindset we want for both success and failure. While it may take time to get us closer to this, giving yourself the time to grow and learn while also appreciating what you have can help your happiness and make a difference.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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