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Failure is Your Bestie

Failure is always viewed as a negative consequence. People always assume that failing is the end of the world, a horrible thing to do, and can do no good. I want to propose the opposite: Failure is Your Best Friend. For most people, this is a love-hate relationship, and that is perfectly fine, but anything less than that, is so much worse. Despising failure will take you nowhere. It is only when we use the failings to our advantage can we be truly successful. Someone who went through so many trial and error attempts used his for betterment, not his defeat. Thomas Edison, accredited with creating the light bulb, did not get it right on the first time, nor the second or third. Instead it took him 1,000 tries, and instead of discouragement he stated this when asked about it: “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” He used those failures as part of the process, and then he created light bulbs. The World Economic Forum shares much information about using failure to one's advantage in their article. One of the things it talks about is not making excuses but explanations, and this is so true. So many times in my life I would make up reasons why I messed up rather than explaining or thinking through what I could have done differently or better instead. We all do that, it is so much easier to avoid responsibility and make up excuses for why something didn’t work. I am working on that right now, on thinking through things before immediately pawning it off on something else. I am not saying it is easy to do, but once we are able to offer an explanation instead of an excuse, and then make a plan things can go so much better. 
Instead of giving a story that has already happened, I want to share what I plan to do when it comes to failures I experience. I know that I will continue to have some failures throughout college and life. In these instances, instead of being discouraged, and wanting to give up, I will work to change my mindset. This change will involve viewing failures as learning opportunities, instead of discouragements. I will work towards having patience, and taking a step back to see the bigger picture. It will likely take lots of practice, and time before I can fully view failures as these learning opportunities and space for growth. Success feels good, the accomplishment can bring a sense of pride, and confidence, however, without the understanding of what failure feels like, those successes will not have the same effect. By working towards this now, early in college, I hope to see great results down the road by the time I graduate and move on to the next step in my career. As I have talked about before, I want to be a doctor, and that means lots of schooling before I begin my career. It also means that failure will be inevitable, but I can choose to push through, and find those learning opportunities and fix my skill to better myself and become successful. 

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