How do you relate to failure - failing at something vs. feeling like a failure
It has been a while since I wrote to you. It was a long summer here and then suddenly fall arrived, and it played hide n seek with summer till now - it seems like we are officially in rainy fall. I love the coziness and romance of fall, but the gray days also cause me to feel anxious.
Like a month ago, when I woke up feeling like a failure.
Failing at something vs. Feeling like a failure
I woke up late that day because I had forgotten to set an alarm. And in the morning my head felt fuzzy and anxious, and I felt like I am running behind, and am not really ‘behaving’ well in life - all this even before I got out of the bed!
Later I realized there's a difference in failing at something and feeling like a failure. Failing at something is a fact and it relates to an outcome, for example, you can fail at completing a marathon.
Feeling like a failure is a broad feeling which may be trigged by a specific outcome. For example, failure at completing the marathon might make you feel like you are a failure - regardless of your overall mental, financial, social, emotional, creative, etc. accomplishments in life.
Failing at something is a fact and it relates to a factual outcome while feeling like a failure is a broad feeling which may be trigged by a specific outcome.
A failure is a stumble
The word "failure" comes from the proto-Indo European root that means 'to stumble or fall'. That's all failure is - a stumble, a temporary setback.
You can be stumbling in one area while doing well in other areas of life.
Like my thoughts were messed up even though I had a productive, loving, and physically active day. So, that day was a stumble for the mental health because the weather has changed here, and it is dark.
In other areas, I hopped forward by showing up. I wrote the morning pages, went for a fitness class, worked, hugged loved ones, talked about how I am feeling, and cried and screamed in a pillow to discharge some emotional energy. So, the day was a success in many areas whether it felt like it or not.
This was how I looked and processed my failure. If you would like to build a resilient relationship with failure, I invite you to join my mini course Failure Forum where I share the key concepts which can help you understand your failures in a new light, help build resilient ways of working and actively embrace failure in your life.
Today, the release price is 27 Euro and part of the proceeds go to non-profit initiatives in areas of women and child empowerment, nature recovery, and people affected by war. Join the Failure Forum here.
Thank you and till later!
Beant