Wise words of young University students:

After rounding some guest bloggers who also dabbled in the same category with nifty social causes, I’ve decided to gather their short stories in their most recent ‘failures’. Keep reading for extremely relatable stories to get you through the day:

Quarter Life Confession: 

I’ve recently failed (many times over) in attempting to acquire an internship. However, through these attempts, I’ve gained a lot of experience in interviewing, online assessments, video interviews, and testing centres. This has enabled me to learn a lot about myself, and the importance of being resilient and never giving up!

Don’t Overthink It:

I failed a job application for a role that I really wanted. People say to think the worst before you find out, but I couldn’t help but stay hopeful. I was pretty crushed when I found out. But we are human, we have feelings. You just have to give yourself some time to get over it but remember that your chance will come if you keep trying. Sometimes life doesn’t go as expected and that’s ok!

Examining Exams:

The last time I failed was in an application for an internship where I had applied for what I thought would be ‘easiest’ department to get into because I felt that I just really needed any vacationer experience. The fact that my heart wasn’t in it was very clear to anyone and I learned that I shouldn’t do things just because others do it too. It’s okay to go at your own pace and direction because it’s better to pursue what you really want (even if it is more difficult!) because it is much more rewarding in the long run!

Switch Off the Stigma:
I recently felt that I failed when I handed in an assessment and when I received the marks I completely missed the mark. It was a blow to my confidence and made me question my ability. But, I’m really determined, and it only made work harder. That’s how I see it. If you fail, it only means you can go up from here. I talk to my tutor and worked things out on how to improve. Don’t take it to heart. Failure is only a part of success!

Mariana, 26

I started playing Netball since I was 10 back in the UK. My coach always told me I was great but I didn’t ever really do anything about it. After, she made me try out for the Nationals, and I tried but I didn’t get it. I remember feeling like a total failure at that point, and I gave up and stopped playing shortly after.

However, one day my mum came in and told me that she knew I still really liked it. I had recently also bought a new pair of new netball shoes, but didn’t use it. After hearing my mum say that, I decided to go back and play again. I found a new coach and she gave me a better perspective of my whole experience. I think I had to fail to almost realise how much I liked netball.

So that’s my story. I failed at something I was great at, and it makes me work harder at it now. I play 5 games a week on average now!

Craig, 26

I picked the wrong subject for Uni for my Bachelor’s degree – Vet science. Ever since I was little I thought I wanted to be a vet, but the dedication you needed to be a vet is really hard work. Shifts were tiring, and sometimes you’d have work in the middle of the night due to an emergency.

Afterwards, I did a Masters in something I actually liked – software engineering. I found out I liked it because whilst studying for my Vet degree I took a statistics course and that’s how I found out about my passion for it.

My lesson for University students? Just because you’ve started doing something you don’t like, doesn’t mean that you’re stuck on it forever.

3 reasons why our failure is amplified in current day society

With soaring demand from students for mental health services increasing exponentially, it’s important to pull back and analyse the environmental factors that play a pivotal role in setting the context for our emotions when dealing with failure.

1. Our meritocratic society.
   We live in a world now where we believe that nobody can stop us from reaching the top, and that our full potential is activated by ourselves. This essentially is a meritocratic society. Therefore, we believe that those who are at the top deserve to be by their own efforts and merits, and so by default, those who fail also deserve to me. That means that society and how it runs escalates our self-doubt and negative emotions as we blame ourselves for ‘failing’.
2. Social media.
   With everyone connected to social media, there’s no better platform that allows us to constantly compare. Whether its comparison with strangers or our peers, we’re offered 24/7 access to compare our lives against the palette of others. What’s worse is when we compare ourselves to those similar to us. Those who are roughly the same age, came from the same place, went to the same school – the more similarities they have to us, the worse we feel when they fare better than us, allowing our failures to be magnified. Social media essentially is a breeding ground for jealousy and comparisons, with our failures amplified when viewing the success of others.
3. Failures in the media are glorified.
   From Walt Disney’s failures to Oprah’s, they’ve all been plastered in the media along with their current triumphs. Whilst these feel-good messages no doubt inspire hope and aim to inspire a positive message – these glorified failures also mean that the smaller everyday failures everyone experiences get ‘lost’ in the sea of triumphant failure. This concept of ‘failing forward’ is now so prevalent in our society from job interview questions of ‘Tell me about a time you have failed and how you learnt from it.’ to media articles we see so frequently, that those ‘failing stagnantly’ or ‘failing backwards’ may feel even more alone.

 

2 common unhealthy ways used by students to deal with failure

Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) for many, when dealing with failure they rarely realise at that point of time that unconsciously they employ self-protective strategies in order to deal with failure. These deflective strategies, defensive pessimism and self-handicapping act by skewing and minimizing one’s ‘true’ level of ability in order to protect self-worth and regulate one’s emotions.

1. Defensive pessimism is a cognitive strategy used to a alter the meaning of failure by setting exceedingly low expectations for tasks with evaluation. By doing so, students afraid of failing are ‘protected’ and ‘cushioned’ against these anxiety-inducing tasks, and keep one’s expectations in check by minimising the gap between expectations and disappointment.
2. Self-handicapping similarly alters the meaning of failure, by deflecting the causes of failure away from the students and onto other excuses in order to keep failure from hurting self-esteem. Other reasons for this include self-enhancement and maintaining an image (both for themselves and others). A typical self-handicapping situation would be a student blaming their low exam grade on not having enough time, or not having studied.

Whilst both these strategies may work in the short-term to preserve self -esteem, they have seen to confirm doubts about one’s ability, and can result in downward spirals of mental health. When excuses run out or when you ‘fail’ too many times, students become disengaged from learning. It is also found to be detrimental to student motivation, mental health, academic performance, general adjustment, and behaviour in later life.

Although this post relates these strategies to a student, they’re also found in people of all ages. For those unaware that they’re doing this, hopefully opening your eyes to these strategies make you more self-aware and on the road to stopping.

 

 

Chris, 29

One of my major failures heading to Uni was heading to Uni and not knowing what my degree was used for. I chose a Bachelor of Science and majored in Mathematics being told that studying a STEM subject would get you a 6 figure salary. Now I’m $20,000 in HECS debt, and doing bar tending. But loving it. I picked up bartending as a part-time job whilst studying for my degree. So I guess without my degree I would’ve probably never found my passion. It was a weird little path, but I guess it cost me a whole degree and HECS to find it. In that regard, I have no regrets going to Uni. It’s just that if I could’ve done it for free whilst finding my passion then that would’ve been ten times better.

I currently work at one of Australia’s best bars, and I plan to go to London or New York later to work and live. My life isn’t a failure per se, but if we had to zoom in back to my younger days that would be one. But hey, look at me now. I’m even studying up on bar-tending right now! Look at this book I’m reading man.

Best 5 quotes about failure:

As inspirational as long stories can be, sometimes you can get the same message that’s short and sweet and gets straight to the point. Quotes are easily digestible, and on a personal level have helped me deal with failure as small pick me up reminders. Below are the best 5 quotes for failure that have resonated with me.

1. I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
   – Thomas Edison
2. I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying. – Michael Jordan
3. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case you fail by default.
   –  J.K. Rowling
4. Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchhill
5. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
   –  Johnny Cash