Naive and somewhat foolish. These two words best exemplify our childhood. It was a time when failure carried no special meaning. Take my story. Six years ago, my teacher announced that my class would be performing The Wizard of Oz. The older children would get the big, fancy roles, and the younger ones like me, would probably be just another munchkin. Still, my seven year old was ecstatic. hen the day came to audition, somehow I decided that I did not want to be just another munchkin. I wanted to be Dorothy! Well, I auditioned and got the part. Imagine getting the lead role. I practiced so much, and sang myself to a wonderful evening. But that was when I was young. If you presented me with that same opportunity today, I would never have accepted.
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In this game, when you threw the hoop around the peg, you received points. The further you stood from the peg, the greater points you would receive. The children who were identified as “fearing failure” either stood very close to the peg, or so far that their failure was guaranteed (Kelsey). Either way, they had no chance of achieving great points. We must not be like these children, losing our opportunities to fear. Whether the game is easy or difficult, we must play. Because in reality, there is no way to escape failure. As inspirational speaker, Denis Waitley once jokingly stated, “Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing (Walter).” Being nothing? That seems to be a high price to pay. We will all experience failures in our life, but those who set themselves apart are the ones who treat failure as a challenge. In life, the journey is always more important than the …show more content…
Like waves of the ocean, failure is a necessary part to the ups and downs of our daily lives. We have now learned that society has taught us to fear our first attempts in learning. Like the children in the Stanford experiments, we are missing out on opportunities because of our fear. This constant fear is futile as a world without failure is unattainable. Finally, we have learned some exercises we can practice to lessen our fear. Understanding that failure does not always mean pain is essential. We must focus on our actions and never our results. If we know that we have done everything in our power, we can separate ourselves from the outcomes. Then, we will have peace from the constant stress of fearing failure. I encourage every one of you to take that opportunity. To fail, learn from it, and try again. Failure is a better teacher than success ever will be. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” (“Smooth Seas Never Made A Skilled Sailor.”). We must overcome struggles to become that skilled sailor in whatever we do. So the next time the waves get rocky and our ships of hope begin to sink, let us remember that things will get better. We will learn from this experience, and become that skilled sailor we have always dreamed of. And if all of this sounds too complicated, and you just want a simple way to tackle your fear, I have one for you. In the words of the singer Lee Ann Womack, “When you get the choice to
In this game, when you threw the hoop around the peg, you received points. The further you stood from the peg, the greater points you would receive. The children who were identified as “fearing failure” either stood very close to the peg, or so far that their failure was guaranteed (Kelsey). Either way, they had no chance of achieving great points. We must not be like these children, losing our opportunities to fear. Whether the game is easy or difficult, we must play. Because in reality, there is no way to escape failure. As inspirational speaker, Denis Waitley once jokingly stated, “Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing (Walter).” Being nothing? That seems to be a high price to pay. We will all experience failures in our life, but those who set themselves apart are the ones who treat failure as a challenge. In life, the journey is always more important than the …show more content…
Like waves of the ocean, failure is a necessary part to the ups and downs of our daily lives. We have now learned that society has taught us to fear our first attempts in learning. Like the children in the Stanford experiments, we are missing out on opportunities because of our fear. This constant fear is futile as a world without failure is unattainable. Finally, we have learned some exercises we can practice to lessen our fear. Understanding that failure does not always mean pain is essential. We must focus on our actions and never our results. If we know that we have done everything in our power, we can separate ourselves from the outcomes. Then, we will have peace from the constant stress of fearing failure. I encourage every one of you to take that opportunity. To fail, learn from it, and try again. Failure is a better teacher than success ever will be. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” (“Smooth Seas Never Made A Skilled Sailor.”). We must overcome struggles to become that skilled sailor in whatever we do. So the next time the waves get rocky and our ships of hope begin to sink, let us remember that things will get better. We will learn from this experience, and become that skilled sailor we have always dreamed of. And if all of this sounds too complicated, and you just want a simple way to tackle your fear, I have one for you. In the words of the singer Lee Ann Womack, “When you get the choice to