Life doesn’t guarantee successes. Whether it’s with people, your professional life, or day to day, there is absolutely nothing we can do to avoid falling short of our targets and expectations every now and then. In the constant materialistic rat-race of today, it’s becoming harder and harder for people to accept earning, having and achieving less than they initially wanted, and the recurring self-belief that failure is not an option only fuels self-doubts and the fear of stepping too far out of our comfort zones. Realistically, society’s most common fear, public speaking, is due to people worrying about making mistakes in front of others. The biggest problem with wanting to be perfect is that no target reached will ever be enough.
One real-life encounter with failure that many teenagers have is during their education. Coming from a competitive school environment, the need to be the best all the time was motivating. Nevertheless, the pressure that comes with that is debilitating and left me wanting to be perfect all the time. Instead of embracing whatever experience it was, instead of growing in strength and confidence, I was following the crowd and exam pressure was getting worse; I never attempted to stand out. We can’t ever progress unless somebody dares to be different, but the terrifying thought of failing and not reaching another milestone was something I couldn’t gear myself up for until my self-doubts made me think: something has to give.
Recently, Childline UK reported a 200% increase in students phoning in for help with exam stress, and the National Citizen Service claimed that, in 2016, one in ten students didn’t shower at all during exam season. This honestly passes the point of being extreme, especially considering the fact we as a generation are growing up and should be adapting the ways in which we cope with pressure. We are estimated to have more than five different careers in our lives by the Financial Times, with each job promising rejections and an inability to perform as well as we want from time to time, but ultimately serving us with individual successes as people.
If a job becomes vacant, common sense dictates that the majority of the job applicants going for one certain position won’t get it. Not because of any reason other than that only one person can work the role advertised, and to ensure that they have a better chance of being the person to fill the next available position, the applicants must take feedback, must take advice, must accept that they didn’t get it and move on. We can only get better.
Truthfully, failure is something that happens and cannot fully be avoided in life. No matter what the shortcoming, you won’t stop breathing if something doesn’t go according to plan. Despite our expectations to be perfect and always perform at our best, failure and rejection won’t end the world and they won’t end or define you.
