The Hall of Fame UCLA Men's Basketball Coach, John Wooden used to say, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. If you prepare properly, you may be outscored but you will never lose." In my short tenure as a teacher, coach and adviser, I have come to recognize a majority of student leaders are easily defeated. Too often plans or performances do not go as expected and the all too common reaction is an overwhelming sense of failure. No big deal, right? NO! It IS a big deal. What happens all too often is this failure turns into defeat, an act of submission by one's will to discontinue his or her efforts towards improvement. In other words, defeat leads one to quit.
John Wooden would also add to this quote by stating how he would not fail BUT he would make mistakes. His perspective on failures resulting in seeing failures as setbacks and opportunities to learn and improve. We've heard this before and maybe too much in that the truthfulness of this perspective has lost its influence on our motivation and will to live and succeed.
The difference between leaders who fail and succeed comes down to how each handles failure. Many great leaders, as John Wooden has stated, assumes and accepts failure will happen. The difference in those who become great and accomplish greatness is they understand failure is NOT the same as defeat. See failures as a means of growth and necessary to develop one's character, vision and leadership.
Look back at your last defeat. Was it as crippling as you felt at the time? How could a different perspective on failure lead to a new sense of improvement?
Picture taken from http://kennysilva.net/failure-is-not-my-identity/
I think that thinking about failing as something that isn't going to ruin your life is important. When looking back at a time when I have failed I look back and remember why I failed and what I did to make sure that I didn't let the same thing happen again. I don't like when I fail and I'm sure that no one really does, but the drive to not fail at something helps me push through the tough times. I think failing is a part of life that teaches us some of the most valuable lessons.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important for students to know that everything is not going to work out. I believe that some students think they are the only one messing up, so they give up. Well everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. Take your mistake and learn from it, take the positive from the situation. Look at the situation and think about what you could do differently so that this mistake doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteithink failure is a steping stone to sucess. Failure makes you see the other side of the road you are walking through,the road is not always very smooth because nothing good comes easy.I see failures in life as necessary because they make you work harder.
ReplyDeleteEverybody fails at least once in their life. Failure is part of life and we just need to be able to learn from our mistakes and better ourselves for the future. Without failure, you cannot learn. I have messed up many times during my time is high school, but a teacher, parent, coach, or friend explained what I did wrong so I can better myself for the future and not make the same mistake again
ReplyDeleteFailure is something that everyone learns to deal with. It's just as human as growing up. When I fail I look for what I did wrong and try to prevent it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI actually look forward to making mistakes, as they are the best way to learn how to accomplish anything in life. However, making the same mistake twice, to me, is failure. Hopefully we're never to proud to learn the lesson the first time
ReplyDeleteA mistake can only make you better. Once you make a mistake you learn what you did wrong and how to fix it in the future. Mistakes can only lead you to do better things in the future with recognition and commitment.
ReplyDeleteMaking mistakes means you can learn from them. Everyone fails in life, you just need to learn from it and make your self a better person from it. Everthing in life happens for a reason. How you react to it, will help you or hurt you in life. Learn from your mistakes.
ReplyDeleteWhat I got out of this is too be successful in life you must have failure. For example if your team in any sport doesn't want too put in effort too practice or practice at all they won't succeed because you must fail in practice too be great when the time comes. John Wooden was such a successful coach because of this concept making him one of the greatest college basketball coaches in the history.
ReplyDeleteI think mistakes can be good once in a while because we learn from them. It is a part of life. When a leader fails at something it helps them be more sucessful at other things they do. We learn from it and change what we did, it helps us work harder.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that any defeat we encounter in our lives are as bad as we make them seem. If you just think as a defeat an opportunity to change your life it will not seem as bad. So whenever you have a defeat just think of as a opportunity to improve and you will make a positive change.
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