Failing is so hard. It gets exponentially more devastating the more success matters to you. But not failing is impossible and anyway, if I never failed I would be arrogant and annoying haha. I am learning to be proud of both my failures and successes because both showed that I was brave to try something I wanted to do and I did my best. :D
I have a really horrible approach to failure. I used to count each one as a "strike" against me, and I could only have so many strikes in a day before I had completely ruined it. These failures ranged from forgetting someone's birthday to getting a B on a homework project.
Now, I cry. The stress builds up and, no matter where I am, I start tearing up. This is horrible when it comes to work, because I work in customer service/cashiering, and I have cried in front of customers three times now. I've been there a month. First when a coupon wouldn't scan, second when the customer accused me of not knowing how to activate gift cards (when I did do it right according to the manager, apparently), and third when a lady accused me of not giving her $20 when she asked for cash back from a debit card (I still don't know if I did that right or not, because the register would have popped open if there was need for cash back).
So failure isn't a good thing for me. It just shows that I'm incompetent, unable to achieve my goals in life, and a nuisance in the lives of others. Then again, I may have been conditioned in my childhood to not accept failure as an answer? I was pushed by my dad to never earn anything less than an A, and as a result I would break down in class (as early as at 7 years old) if I did something wrong or didn't understand something right away.
The first thing that's a little difficult to get over with is feeling disappointed with myself. But after the initial feelings come the resolve to do better next time. I know I tend to make things worse in my mind, so I tell myself that relative to other things I'm life, it's just a minor bump, and I could go through it if I pay attention to how I do things.
Failure is something that can sometimes get me completely down. But I tell myself it's okay, it was okay to fail because I eventually learned something from it. I learned how to stop making the same mistakes. Treating failure as a learning experience actually helps me accept it.
Panic TBH. My anxiety makes me have OCD tendencies and some people mistake my anxiety for hardwork!?
I think about what caused me to fail and then I try again. I don't let my failure get me down, and make me upset, and I try to stay positive. :)
I try to find where I messed up, ask for assistance if I have to, and try to move on (after apologizing one million times). Life happens.
I take my time being sad or mad ... then i sit down ... get my favourite meal with my favourite drink .... watch a good movie .. then i start to think what to do and think of a plan to fix the situation🙌
I am tempted to answer this with "I don't."
But here are some ways I'd like to better deal with failure:
Take time for some self-care, kind of like a reset button.
Listen to music, clear my mind of negative-talk.
Remind myself that I have failed before, that I will fail again, and that it is OK.
Celebrate accomplishments, and remember them in a time of failure.
Life will never be without failure. Nothing will ever be without its flaws. Perfection is an ideal, a dream that humans will never achieve. But that's okay. Because that means the one thing everyone has in common, is the fact we each have a flaw. We each make mistakes. Whether or not we learn from our failures is the thing. If we only succeed in the things we do, we never learn what doesn't work. So to me, each failure is a success, and every flaw is a perfection in its own right.
