Fail Better

Growth is not linear, neither is progress. I cannot start something today, and only see positive results moving forward, and so many people are stuck under that expectation that they will always get a positive result. That is so far from true, growth is not a once track path to the top, but filled with many ups and downs along the way. By the time success is reached, the path to get there will look more like a roller coaster than a staircase. So many people get discouraged and feel like failures when in reality, they do not understand that growth is not linear, and will not happen from simply trying one time. There are ups and downs to reaching success, and I, like many others have experienced them in my life and the endeavors that I choose. I want to share a brief story about a time when I didn’t have a growth mindset, and that was during my senior year of high school. I was taking an advanced class, Calculus I and II, it was an experience to say the least. We were talking about some ...

As part of the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program, it is only fitting to include some wise words from one of our past presidents. I have chosen two quotes taken from “The Strenuous Life” to share how Roosevelt viewed and spoke about failure. (see text here) In these two quotes during his address it is clear that Roosevelt never let failure stop him, or define him throughout his life. Both quotes are more than advice but serve as a way of life that allows one to not view failure in fear but in ambition.  The first quote: “I t is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” When I read this I immediately think that he is reminding the audience that if there is no effort, then there is no chance for success. If the fear of failing, or not wanting to experience failure is so great that it inhibits us from trying, that is to Roosevelt worse than failing. I happen to agree with that statement, if I try and fail, I at least learned something, but if I give up ...

I know I am not the only one that is guilty of going on social media and seeing everyone posting their best lives to find myself feeling sorry for myself. I see everyone traveling to sunny beaches or out with their friends in classy outfits. Sometimes the couples photos or even fancy dessert pictures make me feel like I am missing out. Like my life is not as good because I don’t have ultra edited pictures or thousands of likes on my posts. However, that is not reality, the things on social media that we get jealous of or envy are not those people’s reality. No one wants to post the bad things, or even the subpar things in their lives. I do this too, I try to only post the best pictures or things that I know will get likes. One of my favorite features of instagram is hiding the like count. I started doing this on all of my posts and I would have to go through a lot more work to find out how many people saw it. I have been able to put my phone away and not worry about it. I also started ...

This title may seem controversial, but it is a concept that I think can help when it comes to the mindset surrounding failure. I want to note that I do not think failing is a waste of time, but the fear, the angst, and the “what if” questions are less than helpful. It is inevitable to have some anxiety about things, especially when the stakes are high, but when that gets in the way of execution, it becomes a waste of time. I am going to share two examples from my high school speech career, both of these examples are about times I was scared of failure, but the difference is the mindset and the followthrough after that fear filled my mind.  I typically chose public speaking events, where writing my own speeches was the whole concept. When I picked a topic and started writing, I was terrified, “what if I don’t place?” “what if the judge hates it?” “what if I mess up” questions like this filled my mind, and when the time came for the speech meet, I failed. At the awards ceremony my na...

Hey there! Before I jump into the details of my blog, I wanted to share a little bit about myself, and my purpose for writing this as well. My name is Madison Beckler, and I am from Bismarck, North Dakota. I am the youngest of four siblings, two brothers and one sister. I have 4 nieces and nephews. I n May of 2022 I graduated from St. Mary’s Central High School, our class was relatively small, roughly 80 students. Some of my hobbies include listening to music, being outdoors and scrolling on Pinterest for recipes and DIY projects. My time outside is spent at my family’s cabin on Lake Tschida. There I like to kayak, paddle board, go on boat rides, jet ski, fish, and relax with my family. My family is very important to me, and I spent a lot of time with both my immediate and extended family. I also try to live my life being the best person I can be, helping others when I can and even holding onto some core values that help me to be the best version of myself. Some of the values I rely he...